The Dragon of the Empire
by t3h PeNgU1N oF d00m
Summary: Years after the Great War, a young woman finds herself in a brave new land. As she goes on adventures and fights against the Thalmor, she will discover that her destiny is strongly intertwined with that of the Empire, and of the whole of Mundus itself.
1. Chapter 1

The Dragon of the Empire

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this work, the Elder Scrolls series belongs to Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks

Chapter 1

Screaming, crying, and roaring. All these sounds came out of the Imperial City, which was beset with complete chaos. And there was nothing Nadiya could do about it.

She was restrained, lashed to a wooden stake atop much firewood in a small, shallow pit, and she struggled vainly against her bindings. All around her were many others in the same position, ranging from common farmer to high-ranking noble, all about to suffer the same fate. All of the captives were lined up in long rows facing the faraway City, and even from this distant location one could hear the battle cries of soldiers from both the Dominion and the Empire. Sometimes great fireballs, powerful lightning bolts, howling ice storms, and other displays of terrible and devastating magic could be seen and heard in this awful night, all occurring in the nightmarish distance which is the battle for the City.

Thalmor agents were going about lighting each pit one at a time, smiling in a manner fit for a bloodthirsty dremora, savoring and relishing the pain and suffering that the fires inflicted upon the unlucky soul. At most it took several minutes for the fire to wholly consume the victim, which was marked by the cessation of screaming; at this point, the agents would move on to the next pit.

It didn't matter what the race of the victim was, nor their background; the only thing that mattered was that everyone here had some kind of tie to the Empire, and this fact alone was enough for the Justiciars to condemn one to the stake according to their twisted logic.

Madness! Utter madness, this whole affair with the Dominion and their claims of superiority over the other races in Tamriel. If only the Divines were able to intervene in this dark hour of the Empire. But that won't happen unless a Septim were to appear and turn into an aspect of Akatosh, like Martin did so many years ago in another era. To the misfortune of the Empire, the great Septim dynasty is extinct, and has been since the end of the Third Era nearly two centuries ago. And despite his godhood, Talos didn't seem to be one that directly intervened in the affairs of mortals. As for the other Divines, it would be the end of Nirn if they moved from their place in the sky. No, it seems like this war will be decided by mortals, and mortals alone.

Nadiya continued to struggle against her bindings, trying to block out the surrounding chaos that was causing her much distress. At one point, she looked around to see how far away the agents were, only to realize they were coming for her. In fear she cried out, begging for them to stop this atrocity. Upon arriving, the agents looked at the young woman with an air of incredible contempt and decided to humor themselves for a moment. They asked her why they should treat her any differently than the others, thinking that she was asking her to let her go. Nadiya became furious at this suggestion and condemned them viciously, saying that she valued the lives of the others around her more than herself and that she'd give her soul to ensure that others would get away safely. She then deplored the actions of the Thalmor and their heartless killings that had taken place while the City was under occupation. Finally, she spat at them and said that if the Thalmor were so willing to commit genocide against the races of man to prove their superiority, then they better be willing to prove themselves against the Divines, especially Talos, for surely they wouldn't stand for this madness.

At this the agents howled in laughter, and when they collected themselves the agent with the torch stepped forward and mocked her for her 'archaic' views on the Divines, like the rest of the inhabitants of the Empire. He continued with more of their outrageous claims of lost divinity and their intent to put all the races of man to the sword once the battle was won. He finally finished by calling the Breton girl a traitor, a betrayer for deserting from the Legion, and that her death would in fact be a service to their great enemy. Upon finishing his mad diatribe, he took his torch and went to light the pit on fire.

As the torch approached, Nadiya thought about how everything had gone wrong, and how right he was about her being a traitor. About how she foolishly decided to attempt an escape from the City instead of rejoining the Legion to fight against the elven invaders. She shouldn't have given into the fear that controlled her the moment she decided to flee. Fear is what got her into this whole mess, and now she was bound to a stake to be executed like a criminal, a pest even if the words of the Thalmor were to be taken literally. She would die undignified, at the hands of the tyrants she thought she escaped from.

She started to sob uncontrollably. She just had her 21th birthday several days ago, and now her life was about to be cut short. How could the Thalmor be so cruel? Do they honestly view humanity as little more than animals? How could the gods let all of this happen? All these questions and many others overwhelmed her, and very shortly she came to accept her fate. Time slowed down as she waited to be engulfed by fire, and it took a moment for her to snap back into reality when a lightning bolt struck down the agent about to incinerate her.

She blinked in surprise, and through the chaos she saw the other Thalmor agents drawing their weapons and rushing away, towards what appeared to be… Legionnaires?

The Legionnaires, they had arrived! Gods above, she was going to be saved! And just in time too!

Nadiya smiled sadly as many of the other captives cheered. Glad as she was to see allies, she welcomed death now. It would be humiliating to be rescued from the Thalmor only to be sentenced or even executed for her crime by the Legion. Oh well, for the time being she can atone for her mistakes, assuming she gets freed before an agent decides to finish the job.

As the Thalmor agents and soldiers became distracted by the Legion, she saw a couple of darkly cloaked figures slip past the fighting and run towards her. Once they drew near, it became clear that her saviors were Milana and Kamilia, the Colovian twins, and they quickly went about cutting her binds. Thank the Divines they are alive, Nadiya thought. I wonder about the rest of the coven?

Once her binds were undone, they went about freeing as many of the other captives as they could, and planned to leave once the Legion had taken care of the Thalmor. As they ran around, a sudden calamity became apparent, precipitated by a powerful roar. Everyone in the area, Legionnaires, Thalmor, the captives, the twins, and Nadiya looked up to see something dark and ominous emerging though a kind of portal in the night sky. Despite the nature of the battle, everyone became bewitched by the strange sight and ceased fighting, if only for a brief reprieve from the battle.

Nadiya furrowed her brows and tried to make out what the thing was. Even though it would have been best to leave, something about it enthralled her. She felt it was almost familiar, though how so was beyond her.

After hovering in place for some moments, the thing started to descend towards the pits. As it did so, many people started to flee the area not wanting to know what strange thing is and will do, and within minutes the area was empty with only the dead accompanying Nadiya and the twins. Nadiya remained transfixed, ignoring the protests of the twins despite them trying to get Nadiya away from the area.

But she could not be persuaded to leave. It seemed that Nadiya had become hypnotized, and for some reason the twins could not drag her away due to her intense interest in the thing. There was absolutely no reason for Nadiya to find the thing familiar, and yet she knew instinctively that there was some connection that existed. That feeling intensified as it drew closer, and against all rational thought she decided to stay and figure out what made her so entranced. Even though she would likely die, what did she have to lose? She was a deserter after all. She deserves death, and she welcomes it.

As it came forward the skies became even more nightmarish than before, glowing like fire now and lighting up the land, and the storm clouds that were rapidly forming seemed to herald the thing's arrival. Its approach was becoming more rapid and obvious, even furious, though the form of it was still unclear from the ground. Despite all this, the battle in the background didn't seem to diminish, in contrast to the pits where the only noise came from the dying fires in their ash-filled pits. On the contrary, it seemed the battle became even more furious than ever, everyone there ignorant to the highly ominous thing whose form was now easier to make out, but still unclear.

When it became apparent that the thing was about to be upon them, the twins decided to find a nearby spot to hide and see what was going to happen, and hopefully take her away as soon as she snapped out of her strange behavior. Nadiya continued stand in place transfixed, and when the thing landed no one could mistake what the beast is.

Once it landed, Nadiya snapped out of her reverie, and beheld in front of her a massive, darkly colored reptilian monster with many sharp spikes on its body. It had eyes that glowed red with fury, and when they cast their powerful gaze towards Nadiya, she fell backwards, taken aback at the raw hate it radiated. The monster glared at her for several seconds before roaring with a rage that Nadiya felt in her bones. As it did, fires came down from the sky and began to destroy the world. It was then that the battle in the background ceased, and soon Nadiya could make out in the distance tiny forms trying to get away from the city as it was being bombarded relentlessly by the fires. People were crying out in fear, wondering why the world was being set on fire. Their pleas soon became indistinct from the chaos as the fires began to rapidly consume the land.

Nadiya stood up and started run towards the twins who were shaking with fear. Surprisingly the monster did not pursue her, its aspect making it appear amused by their retreat. When Nadiya felt a temptation to look back, she saw speaking in an incomprehensible language, and when he finished an enormous fireball shot down from the heavens towards her and the twins. Realizing they wouldn't get away in time, the three looked at one another sadly and hugged one another, accepting their fate. Just before it crashed, Nadiya heard the monster speak the common tongue.

"Not even you, Nadiya Atreides, can hope to stop what shall be so, as foretold in the Elder Scrolls."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this work, the Elder Scrolls series belongs to Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks

A loud noise awoke Nadiya. Startled, she looked around and realized that she was in darkness. She seemed to be lying down, and she shifted her hands around to feel the touch of wood. She tried to sit up but bumped her face on what seems to be a kind of wall, or panel from the hollow sound it made. Strange, she thought. How did I get here? Where am I even?

She decided to take a moment to collect herself, while what sounds like muffled violence took place not far from her. She thought and thought.

She went to sleep. That much was clear. But she wasn't alone. There were others... the twins? Yes, the twins, as well as some others. Who were they?

Her coven. They all slept in caskets, to disguise themselves. For what purpose? To... leave safely? Yes! From... Cyrodiil, no wait... the Imperial City? Yes! Wait, if she and the others were being woken up, then-

More noises came as she thought, this time right next to her. Locks were being undone, and what sounded like a blade struck something soft, with a soft sigh emerging moments later. Then, some scuffling about, as if one were picking pockets. Were… were the others being killed and robbed?

Nadiya braced herself. If the other members of the coven were being killed, then this means the shipment was intercepted. Oh gods no, she thought. I hope at least that the twins are alive.

She waited patiently for whatever was to come. Eventually the scuffling stopped, and she could hear footsteps growing louder and louder, until they stopped mere paces in front of her. Then the casket began to shake with the locks being sawed off one by one. Once they all came loose, the casket opened and Nadiya pounced.

The robber yelped in surprise and Nadiya quickly took advantage of the brief window of opportunity. She lifted him up and bashing his head against the ground, knocking him out soundly. Not bad for a little Breton girl, she thought. She smirked in contempt of this would-be robber, and she thanked the Divines that her instincts and training hadn't eroded. Who knows how long she spent in that casket.

"What - hey!" a gruff voice exclaimed. She turned to see a couple of other people, friends of her robber based on their reaction, looking at her and the knocked-out assailant in surprise. She quickly formed ice spikes in her hands and as they rushed to attack her she shot the spikes at them, the ice going through their legs. As they fell crippled by the spikes, she cast a paralysis spell on them and then went about tying the three up to save them for later. Once she was satisfied that all three were appropriately bound and gagged, she turned to the other coffins that the robbers had been working on and started to open the caskets still closed.

Most of them were already opened, and had skeletons in them. Of those that had fresh bodies in them, their injuries were slight but fatal. None of them had been close to Nadiya in life though. Somewhat of an oxymoron considering her and the coven's status as undead vampires. Truthfully, she was only close to the twins and no one else within the small group since the others were quite arrogant. From what she remembers, the other members of the coven were quite outspoken in their self-professed superiority compared to mortals and acted that way much of the time; the fact that many of them were quite wealthy and even nobles served to intensify their beliefs. The twins on the other hand were rather humble when it came to their opinion on the gift, and they asserted that despite the truth that their unique state of undeath bestows upon them great gifts, they have no obligation to misuse their power. Their humility, and the fact that vampires were innately granted great powers of the night led Nadiya to give into the temptation, and she has had no major complaints after her Turning although the issue of the sun caused her irritation. Ultimately though, even without the input of the twins she felt she still would have Turned since for Nadiya power is paramount, especially given the War and its causes.

After going through several skeletons she eventually found Milana, thankfully still alive and untouched, and within several minutes they also found Kamilia, also unharmed. After some time, they stepped back with all of the caskets having been opened. Out of a coven comprising of several dozen members, only Nadiya, Milana, and Kamilia were left alive. It seemed that for the ones that were now skeletons, someone had undone their magical seals and left them to die of starvation. The nails scratches underneath served as a grisly reminder of what might have happened if their caskets had their seals broken.

There were only a few other bodies, belonging to those who were hastily killed by those robbers. After closing the caskets with respect to their deceased clan members, they started to go around the small underground den they were in and check the various chests arranged next to the walls to see if the gear and possessions that were meant to be shipped with them were here. Thankfully they were, and after organizing everything including the possessions of the now completely dead members of the coven and then resting for a moment to recall their memories, they all started to discuss what to do.

"Well this is fantastic. Everyone else in the coven is dead, we don't know where we are, and we have no idea how far into the future we are," said Milana in irritation. "Based on the fact that we're not safe and sound in our secret hideout and instead inside a den meant for robbers and bandits, it's probably likely that we're far away from proper civilization. So, what do you girls think we should do?"

"I don't know about you two but I'm quite thirsty, and I don't think that group of criminals are in any way important amongst them based on their obviously secondhand apparel; I say we feed first, then question them about where we are, and then we can go - wait. Should that be the other way around, question them first and then feed? What about you, what do you think Nadiya?" Kamilia put forward.

"They're murderers, that much is clear. I don't see what difference it makes whether to feed or question them first," Nadiya said with crossed arms. "If they were Thalmor, things would be more straightforward, but they're clearly not. How about this, I go interrogate them and you two search the place for some kind of journal or logbook? Records and whatnot?"

"What makes you think a tiny band of small-time robbers would keep any kind of written material?" asked Milana. "Honestly, I'd be surprised if they could read."

"It doesn't hurt to check, and to counter that point take a look around. This place is fairly well-stocked, clearly meant to operate in isolation for extended periods of time, there's a good stash of weapons over there, there's a nice fire with food nearby, and there's even a couple of cages down there. Oh, look, there's a body in that far one. Looks like it's dressed in mage's robes, at least that one must have something on hand. Anyways what I'm saying is that for these criminals, despite their raggedy, keeping records would be a good idea."

"Alright, you made your point Nadiya. Glad to know the thief within is still alive and kicking," said Kamilia in jest.

"Well, duh. I mean, it would take some serious brainwashing for me to forget my past. You done?"

"Yeah. Well, sort of. Maybe you could tell a story about something exciting from your life as a super-secret criminal sometime later. We could probably learn something, which would help us a bit considering we're literally criminals last we knew. According to the Thalmor anyways."

"Yeah, sure, later. Look, I'd really like to know what's going on sooner rather than later so we should get started. I mean, what if the Thalmor won the battle and the war and they're running around killing everything like the formal savages that they are?"

"I doubt they'd have won. I'm pretty sure some of the assaulting Legions were reinforced by the Nords if I recall correctly, so those Legions would have given the Dominion a really hard time. And besides, even if - okay, okay, we'll start looking, don't give me that silly face. Just don't, you know, make them cry too much. Knowing how you deal with criminals and stuff. Irony at its finest, seriously," concluded Kamilia with a mischievous smirk at the last sentence.

Milana had already walked off and was browsing through the various books stowed away in one of the robber's chests, while Kamilia went to the lower level to check the body. Nadiya headed over to the fire pit where the three robbers were tied up next to, all starting to stir. She looked them over, decided on the large Nordic man that had the nicer apparel and cleaner features out of the three, dragged him a bit away and started about her task of interrogating him.

She went to undo the gag tied around his mouth, and once she did so a slimy glob of spit landed on her face. Nadiya glared at him, wiped off the spit and began. "You know, I could have been persuaded to let you and your friends go once I was done questioning you all, but that little action right there made me quite unhappy."

"Oh go back to Oblivion you monster! I know what you are and I know what you plan to do to us once you're through with your bloody questions!" the fearful bandit exclaimed. "By the Divines, if only you weren't a damned vampire I'd have run you through like a dog."

"Oh please, even if I weren't one I could vaporize you in a heartbeat. And you're just a common criminal, you and the other two thugs; I doubt you people could ever stand a reasonable chance against me, vampire or not. Now, if you want to keep your skin intact I suggest you cooperate. Maybe I'll still consider letting you all go."

"And if I don't?"

"I do have a few black soul gems that I was going to save for the Thalmor, but I could recharge my axe. Oh, and I would also start feeding on you, the girls and I haven't drank for some time now."

"The Thalmor? You're thinking of fighting them? What are you, crazy? I don't think even you monsters, powerful as you say you are, could get away with harassing them for long."

"So they still exist. I'm not surprised. Now what do you know about the Thalmor? What is the situation in Tamriel?"

"So wait a moment, was this was a beauty sleep you just woke up out of? Nice to know you girls took a sweet little nap all while the elves invaded and the War was going on."

"Just answer the questions."

"Ugh, fine. I'm not much of a historian though, so don't get mad if it turns out something I say is dead wrong, heh get it? Now, the Thalmor are a bunch of snotty elves that decided that they wanted to destroy the Empire and-"

"I know who they are, I meant what they have been up to in the meantime, since the War."

"Then why'd you ask who they are? That time in the coffin mess up yer pretty little head a bit?"

"What? I didn't mean who they are as an entity. Look, how about we start with events that happened right after the battle to retake the Imperial City? In fact, who won?"

"Fine, fine. Don't be so pushy. Well, the Empire won the battle, but then afterwards the Emperor signed the White-Gold Concordat, I think with the same exact terms that was given before the war because people say that the Empire might have lost if the war continued. And since the elves had the upper hand, he didn't want to make them mad again. Because of the treaty, the Thalmor are allowed to roam the Empire freely to root out Talos worshippers. Damn those uptight bastards, I'd hunt down every one of them if I could get away with it. But their spies are everywhere, so I can't really do so without having a bounty on my head and elves at my tail. Officially the Empire and the Dominion have a kind of agreement since the war ended over thirty years ago, as long as the elves are allowed to roam Tamriel like a bunch of wolves for Talos worshippers."

"Are you serious? Talos worship is outlawed now?"

"Yeah. That's one reason why me and the boys are out here. That, and raiding and looting certain caravans. When we're not delivering uh, 'special' goods, like you three beasts. You know, who would've thought there would've been so much gold in the average caravan? The only issue is dealing with the travelers, but nothing a little bashing here and there takes care of."

"Gods, this is bad. Okay, how have the Thalmor gone about with this? You know, enforcing this clause?"

"Oh the usual, raiding random homes and dragging people off into the night."

"And this has been going on since the end of the War?"

"Um, funny thing actually. The Thalmor only started doing stuff like that once Ulfric made a big deal out of it. For a while, as long as you worshipped Talos quietly and out of sight, the elves wouldn't suspect a thing. Up until Ulfric did some battle against weird tribals or something and started to openly worship Talos afterwards. That's when the elves threw a fit and basically threatened to start another war unless he was arrested or killed or whatever. He got arrested, and after he was freed he went up to High King Torygg and killed him as tradition in becoming High King, and afterwards declared that Skyrim should be independent. Of course, the Empire didn't take kindly to all of this, and tried to kill Ulfric. Luckily a guy helped him escape, bless him. So now Skyrim's in a war for independence from the stupid Empire, Ulfric leading the way with his Stormcloaks. I hope he wins; he's the true High King and a real Nord hero, and we don't need no Imperial or elf telling us who to worship. Milk drinkers, all of them, and you too!"

"Whoa wait WHAT?! This Ulfric is rebelling because he wants to become the king of Skyrim AND secede from the Empire?"

"That and the right to worship Talos. We Nords don't need some pointy-eared snobs telling us who to worship. But yeah, he's been leading a rebellion for some time now. As the future High King, he wants he wants to kick out the Empire and form a land free of the Thalmor, and then wage a righteous war against those yellow pointy-eared milk drinkers."

"Well this Ulfric sounds like a damned moron. Delusional even. I mean, does he really think that he and an independent Skyrim, assuming he wins this rebellion, would be able to tackle the Dominion alone, the Empire's greatest threat?"

"You know, Hammerfell is independent and managed to fight off the Dominion."

"Really? How did... wait. Wait, that reminds me, didn't General Decianus discharge a large number of 'invalid' Legionnaires in order to defend the province? Because I recall him unwilling to completely abandon Hammerfell and leave it to the mercy of the Dominion."

"Uh, maybe. Why, who's he and what's that have to do with anything?"

"He was a general in charge of defending Hammerfell until he was recalled to Cyrodiil to prepare for the battle for the Imperial City. Now, you said the Concordat was ratified with the same terms prior to the War, right? If Hammerfell was given to the elves, obviously they'd fight back. I know the Redguards are proud like that. Since the Dominion was likely greatly weakened by their failed invasion judging by the fact that you said the Empire won the battle for the City, those Legionnaires left behind must have played a pivotal role in defending the province. Along with the likelihood that the Dominion was not up to full-strength at that time, I'd wager that's these are the main reasons they managed to fight off the Dominion, assuming you're telling the truth about Hammerfell."

"I... guess? Wait, how would you know all this? Are you some kind of military officer or something? By the Nine, you mean to say that the Empire is ruled by vampires?!"

"That's not for your ears. And don't worry, no vampires. Our control was never total, and besides the others are all gone now thanks to you robbers and whoever decided to release the seals prematurely. We're the only ones left it seems. Now about Hammerfell, why didn't the Empire reject the Thalmor's claims over it despite the victory?"

"Obviously because the Emperor's a coward and a milk drinker for signing the damned treaty! Damned Empire sold out!"

"What? Why - look, just tell me... um, actually we'll continue this later," Nadiya concluded, seeing Milana waving her over. "Thank you, you've been helpful enough, and maybe I'll be willing to let you three go later," she said quite pointedly as she put back the gag over the man's mouth, ignoring his protests. He dragged him back to the group of robbers, now fully awake and struggling against their binds, then went over to the twin standing next to some bookshelves full of books, tomes, and the like.

"Hey, so what have you found?" asked Nadiya.

"A few journals. You were right, they were keeping records of what they've been raiding and other miscellaneous things," replied Milana.

"Okay, so where are we? Skyrim?"

"Yeah, did that guy tell you?"

"More or less. Alright, we're in the land of the Nords. Never been here before and honestly I'm not too excited, but surely we can make the best out of this. Hopefully. So what date is it?"

"4E 201, 17th of Hearthfire. We're in an underground hideout for smugglers."

"Huh, over twenty years. At least the Empire's still kicking, assuming that man's testimony was true. Um, what do they smuggle? I'm curious."

"Looks like they're willing to transport anything for the right price, unless their contacts get killed, or some similar inconvenience occurs. In that case, they'll just take those goods for themselves. When not under contract, they take to raiding isolated caravans. It seems that our shipment became too problematic and so they went about disposing of our remaining members."

"Any details on why that's so? I mean, why our shipment was problematic?"

"It's written that our destination fell under scrutiny by some pirates, and they raided and looted the hideout we were supposed to go to. Oh, and now some beasts inhabit it. Coupled with the fact that most of the coffins were already in a sorry state prior to them getting the contract, the smugglers must have decided they should just salvage the remaining coffins and material."

"So it took over twenty years just to get us to here, to Skyrim? What in the world was going on? What led to such a delay?"

"I haven't found anything pertaining to our delay. All they wrote was that they were contracted to deliver us about two weeks ago by letter, and though they noted the decrepit state of most of the goods they didn't pay too much mind to them; they just wanted the gold. They retrieved the shipment close to a city called Helgen and they were about to leave Skyrim to Morrowind when they got word that delivery to our destination would be impossible. So, they took us back here to salvage what they can."

"Huh. Well, I can't say I was excited to be heading to an obscure hideout close to Red Mountain in the first place. My place is within the Empire, fighting against the Dominion and the Thalmor. Besides, Morrowind's still a dangerous place, if everything is still the same since we went to Sleep. I wonder if we'll find out what in Oblivion delayed us. I mean, twenty-plus years? How is this even possible? Are our plans ruined?"

"Well, at least we aren't bound to the coven anymore. Good riddance," Kamilia said as she walked up to the two. "I didn't find much on that guy down there except for his records of hunting down evil daedra worshippers and other bad guys. He had some pretty gnarly wounds too."

"That's fine, we found enough info on where we are and what's going on. Speaking of, Mil, are there any maps here?"

"Yes, right here on this shelf."

"And is there a list of cities, locations of all the major guilds, books on the current state of Tamriel, the Legion, et cetera et cetera?"

"Yes, yes, yes, and presumably so. I swear these boys raided a library, what with all of the books, tomes, scrolls, journals, and records here."

"Huh. So if we have all this info at our disposal, then the usefulness of those three over there just diminished to the point where we don't really need them. Girls, I we're all thirsty, yes?"

The twins nodded eagerly.

"Well since those three are dangerous criminals and will likely be locked away if they're turned in, basically a waste of space to whatever city takes them in, or executed which would be a waste of blood, and since it'd be difficult at best to walk all the way to a city with them in tow, I say we just deal with them right here, right now. Afterwards we'll bottle up excess blood for our journey back to civilization. Forget about keeping them as thralls; they, or at least their leader admitted to being killers, and I don't like people who kill with no remorse, as you girls well know."

"Sounds good to me," said Milana. Kamilia grinned in agreement, her fangs baring menacingly within sight of the criminals.

The three smugglers widened their eyes upon overhearing their fate and started to plea for mercy despite their muffled mouths. When they began to cry out, the three vampires glared at the criminals in irritation. As she looked on, their faces contorted with fear, Nadiya began to feel that may be inhumane to dispatch of the smugglers so callously, even though they did admit to committing violent crimes.

She realized that the situation that the smugglers were in was not so dissimilar to some of her own experiences when she was captured by the Thalmor at the beginning of the Great War and essentially made a slave. She would have been killed if it weren't for the intervention of a Justiciar who had taken an odd interest in her, which she would very quickly realize why.

She had spent over a year in his control, and during this time she both endured and witnessed the worst of the Thalmor's excesses. The Thalmor were absolutely ruthless in their battles against the Empire, and she saw many prisoners of war tortured before execution. When the army that the Justiciar was assigned to needed to rush elsewhere, the Dominion's soldiers would use magic to slaughter any prisoners wholesale with barely an afterthought.

As for Nadiya herself, she had to put up with many things. His wanton desires were something she didn't think that one who proclaimed himself to belong to a "master race" of sorts would delve into. His sickening lust for both her and killing "inferiors" was a combination of traits that indicated madness, and his affinity for using magic to control her body during his time for "leisure" furthered supported it. Nadiya was a girl with a very strong will, but the torture that the Justiciar inflicted upon her both physically and psychologically was nearly enough to break her will and resolve. "Lesser beings would have fallen within hours," the Justiciar once told her, "but you survive nearly a year later. That is why I keep you, for your ridiculous stubbornness to not submit to one so superior is highly intriguing to me." Lucky her, to be saved by a madman.

Eventually, a marauding thief with incredible courage found her while searching for valuables, and she was able to exact revenge upon the Justiciar in a fittingly ironic fashion. After they escaped and parted, Nadiya began to show more empathy to others, which admittedly wasn't much since she was in a battlefield most of the time after her rehabilitation, and her past of being in a minor thief's guild still made her slightly wary of others save for close friends. But still, there was definitely a positive change to her personality. To those under the banner of the Dominion however, things were very different. Indeed, Nadiya had wondered if she was a hypocrite for not showing the same empathy for the Dominion's soldiers. But times were tough and war makes people desperate; it was a kill or be killed scenario.

As Nadiya looked at the criminals, she saw eyes wide with fear, echoing that of the Imperial soldiers killed as prisoners of war by the ruthless Thalmor. After a long moment, while the twins were waiting impatiently for her to give the go ahead, Nadiya started abruptly, "I feel a little sorry for them. Would it be right for us to pass judgement so quickly?"

"Huh? Why the change in heart Nadiya? And for these criminals and murderers?" asked Milana in confusion and with a raised eyebrow, while Kamilia looked on in surprise.

"I just want to make sure that we would be in the right. What do you two think?"

"Maybe if you've seen their records you wouldn't be so hesitant. Let me open this logbook first. Okay, it says here that they tortured the man down there to death. Here, come take a look, the both of you. Yeah, you see? They did that for a quick laugh, in their words. Barbaric I say. In fact, they do it fairly often to those they decide to take back here, for ransom or whatnot. Just to take out their frustrations. Oh, look here. On this page, it says upon targeting this particular wagon they killed all of the men and then took turns on, 'having their way' with the surviving women before they-"

"Stop, stop," Nadiya said in disgust and anger. She took a deep breath, and continued, "Never mind, I think all this evidence is quite damning, don't you girls think?"

"Yes, of course," muttered Kamilia impatiently. "Very much so," followed Milana.

"Well then, in service to those you three have sent to the afterlife for the sake of material wealth or for any other similarly profane reason, I condemn you three over there to Oblivion, assuming these black soul gems take you to that realm of existence," called out Nadiya to the criminals as they began to walk towards them. "I don't know what it's like to be trapped in a soul gem, but you guys will find out soon enough. Now don't squirm too much, I'm not in the mood to struggle against my prey."

As the three vampires chose and closed in on their targets, the smugglers continued their fruitless pleas for mercy despite knowing full well of the broad extent their crimes. They even began to wail and scream against their gags in vain hope of attracting someone's attention outside. But alas no one came, for they all were far away from civilization.

No shame, thought Nadiya. Even with the proof of their crimes shoved right into their faces, they still want to be shown mercy, something they denied to all of their victims. Oh well, they're no big loss in the grand scheme of things.

Chaotic as the next few minutes were, things eventually settled down though it took a while for the criminals to be totally subdued. For an hour or so afterwards the three drank and read up on current events in Tamriel, discussing with each other about how they should go about fighting the Thalmor, where to go and what to do once they leave the den, and why they were awakened much further into the future than they expected. None of them were particularly enticed with being so far from civilization, something they were born into, so they talked and planned about what major city to head to.

Eventually, being engorged with a fresh meal plus the alluring feeling of sleep that came very quickly overtook the three, and they vowed to continue their discussion in the morning. Small talk of 'goodnight' and 'sweet dreams' was exchanged between them just before they all closed their eyes and went to dream about tomorrow and the future.

Up in the Aetherius, the spirits of those slain unceremoniously by the criminals chuckled at the fate of their killers. Being killed by those already dead, now that was a good laugh.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this work, the Elder Scrolls series belongs to Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks

Hours later at the break of dawn, the three woke up one at a time. After washing and cleaning up in the relatively clean water at the bottom of the den, Kamilia started to make some breakfast and brought out some of remaining blood they saved from last night while Nadiya and Milana decided to examine maps of Skyrim and resuming her reading about current events, focusing on Skyrim. Once their meals were prepared, they sat down at a table near the fire, and began their discussion.

"So I took the liberty of reading up on these maps and this book on the various cities in Skyrim and the organizations within them, continuing from last night," Nadiya began. "We're quite a way from the nearest main road, which would take at least a day or two of uninterrupted walking to reach on foot. Assuming we stop to rest, which we likely will, definitely two days, possibly even three. However, I doubt our friends over there walked everywhere. They must have had some horses. They'd shorten our journey immensely."

"I hope they do. It would be hell on my feet if we walked the whole way," said Kamilia with a full mouth.

"Please don't talk with a full mouth Kam. And you're right Nadiya, it would be very foolish of them to not have at least one. Shall I go out and check the surface after breakfast?" asked Milana.

"Yes please. Okay, so assuming the rebellion isn't affecting all corners of the province which would make life drastically more difficult, we should reach this road here tonight or tomorrow on the 19th if we have horses," said Nadiya as she pointed at her map. "And from there I suggest we head north, then west a bit, then follow the road to the northeast then northwest at this bend, to this city called Winterhold. There's supposed to be a College there, dedicated to the study of the arcane. Kinda like the College of Whispers, only very isolated. I remember reading a little about it back in the City, and it's supposed to be a very safe place for mages, wizards and the like to practice various skills in magic. In the College we can complete our training, and we can also learn more about Skyrim in relative peace as long as the College isn't in the middle of a battlefield. Overall, the journey should take within two weeks."

"Really? That sounds like a good plan then. And it sounds like we'll fit into the College well enough, assuming they're willing to take us in. And if there's enough blood available. What's the area like?" asked Milana.

"Probably very snowy based on the name. Otherwise I don't know much, I haven't read what the environment is like there yet. Humph, I should've read up on this province when I had the chance, would help us quite a bit now. Oh well. What do you think Kam?"

"Sounds okay. Hear me out though, an institution dedicated to the study of magic that still exists in good condition in this day and age is a good thing especially in this province, but how long are we going to stay there? What with the Thalmor running about?"

"For a while. A long while. Like I said, we need to find a safe home and find out more about the civil war and the extent of Thalmor control. Once we sort things out we can go about dealing with the elves in this province, as well as finding others to sway to our cause of fighting the Dominion underground to eventually liberate Tamriel from those bastards. That may not happen for a long time though since the College is somewhat isolated, and it's a big province. Now I say we go to Winterhold because it seems to be ignored by both sides in this rebellion despite the local rulers aligning themselves with the rebels, and the roads leading there seem to be safer than the other paths heading elsewhere. Windhelm is much closer to us from our location, 'Mara's Eye Pond,' but I wouldn't feel comfortable residing there for obvious reasons."

"Why? Because of this Ulfric fella?"

"Yeah. The man sounds like he's tearing apart Skyrim and the Empire with his Stormcloaks just to get what he wants. He might have a good case against the Empire, but he sounds like a deluded maniac. And besides, this all seems like it's working in the elves' favor. In fact, I'd bet they engineered this whole charade to further weaken the Empire so they'll have a greater chance of destroying it later."

"Your theory makes sense, but honestly we need to figure out the situation one bit at a time. I say we should stop by Windhelm for at least a day to rest and to see these Stormcloaks and what they're like, why they're revolting. I think it'd be great opportunity to learn about what were the key mistakes the Empire made that led these Stormcloaks to rebel, and to learn from them. I still support the Empire that we knew, but we need the whole story in order to make a reasonable judgment," asserted Milana firmly. "Oh, and our blood stock will probably be close to empty once we get there, so stopping by should be a priority. No one will miss a couple of Stormcloaks as long as we make it look like bandits or wild animals or whatever did the job."

Nadiya looked at her and opened her mouth to rebuke her, and then paused. A few moments later, she continued with a lower voice than before. "I guess you're right. Wouldn't be fair otherwise. It's just that these idiots seem blind to the real threat: The Dominion! They decide to rebel so they can openly worship Talos and take the war to the Summerset Isles by themselves? Lunatics I say. The Dominion is too powerful for any one province to handle alone. By the way, I did some reading on why Hammerfell succeeded against the Dominion, and their victory was mostly because of those 'invalids' after all. I knew it! And yet despite their victory, that land is still in utter ruin, a pyrrhic victory at best. If the Redguards, legendary for their skill in battle couldn't 'win' without that kind of cost, I highly doubt Ulfric and his cohorts would be able to even approach the Isles if that's their true intentions. I shudder to think what would happen if he succeeds in his petty rebellion. I respect the rebels for their willingness to war so openly against the elves, but the path they're taking doesn't do any good for the province, for all of the Empire. I wished they'd think with their heads, and not with their hearts."

"I agree with you fully. However, things seem to be complicated and I don't think we'll know the full story without personal interactions first. Oh, another thing; I read somewhere that the headquarters for the Legion is in Solitude, and that none other but Tullius is leading them. Did you know that?" asked Milana.

"I did. I've been reading about the Legion and its various assets and holdings in Skyrim. I'm glad Tullius is the leader of the Legion here, and I'm certain he'll lead his forces to victory soon. As soon as he puts down Ulfric, everyone can rest easy and the Empire can continue to rebuild."

"That's nice to think about. So when will you rejoin the Legion? Whenever you visit Solitude?"

"Not soon. I don't even know if I'll rejoin."

"What? Are you serious?" asked Kamilia with great surprise. "Why not? I mean, joining the Shadow Legion was one of the high points of your life if I remember correctly."

Nadiya breathed deeply and remained quiet for a moment. Then she started slowly, "I know I swore an oath to the Legion to protect the Empire and its citizens. But with the current state of Tamriel, it may not be the best thing to do. Really, all I need to do is complete my battlemage training, and I am sure the College has much to offer when it comes to combat training. I'm not too keen on rejoining the Legion just yet because it sounds like Skyrim needs a lot of help. According to these journal entries, the province has been under a lot of stress for a long while, and the war only added to that. Things are pretty grim in Skyrim and there's much that needs to be done in order to prepare against the Dominion. Doing things our way means we have significantly more freedom in accomplishing this. Sure, rejoining the Legion would be nice. I'd officially complete my training and I'd be a great asset to my fellow Legionnaires. But then I'd have to be taking orders, and there a lot I want to do that wouldn't be possible as an active soldier. I wouldn't be able to, for example, chase down a group of bandits terrorizing a town because I'm needed to defend a fort from Stormcloaks. Basically I don't want to rejoin the Legion because then I'd wouldn't be able to help out the locals as much."

"I see. Are you sure about this?"

"Yes. I can rejoin the Legion anytime. And besides, I think I can do more good if I'm acting alone. With you two I mean."

"Are you going to at least contact Tullius and let him know we're back in the fold?" asked Milana.

"I don't think that'd be a good idea. According to this map, there's a Thalmor Embassy not far from Solitude. Yeah, ridiculous, I know, "commented Nadiya to a surprised Kamilia. "It may be dangerous to head that way or even send letters because of their proximity. We can contact him when the time is right and safe."

"Don't you think you're being a bit too cautious Nadiya? I mean it's been twenty years, is it really necessary to sulk about in the shadows like a bunch of rats?" wondered Kamilia out loud.

At these words Nadiya turned and glared at Kamilia with ferocity, surprising the twin who wasn't expecting such aversion. Kamilia wondered why she was doing that for a mere instant, and then the twin remembered the Breton's time in slavery.

"Hey, sorry. I wasn't thinking right, hah-hah. I was just dozing off." She looked at Nadiya with a sincere yet nervous smile. "I uh, I just forgot about you-know-what."

Nadiya looked on for a few more seconds, then lowered her eyes. Speaking in a blunt tone she replied, "It's fine. I just want to be a little more cautious when it comes to those bastards. You understand that, don't you?"

"Right, right. But listen, it's been decades since we walked Tamriel. Don't you think it'd be unlikely that'd an agent would be looking for you still, or even recognize you?"

"Maybe. But I still don't want to take the risk. Please, just trust me."

"Okay then. Once again, my sorries. Alright, so back to our original talk; so the plan is to head to the main road to Windhelm to check things out, then onwards to Winterhold?" asked Kamilia, eager to put aside the preceding awkwardness.

"Yeah. Might as well restock and get info in Windhelm like you said Mil. When do you girls want to move out?"

"Hmmm. We'd still need to pack up and that will take a while. Oh, almost forgot. I'll go up to check for horses. Hopefully they have a spare carriage as well," said Milana as she got up to put away her finished dishes first. "I'll be back in a few minutes," she called as she headed to the ladder leading to the outside. Nadiya and Kamilia then turned to finish their food.

Once Milana left, Kamilia looked to Nadiya and asked, "Hey, gotta moment?"

"Um, sure. We're not really doing anything but finishing up our food. Why, what's the matter?"

"Don't get mad, but... are you okay?"

"What? Am I okay?"

"Yeah, are you?"

"...Yes? Wait, what do you mean?"

"Well, I know things got tense while we were escaping the city, before we went to Sleep. Is there anything that Mil and I should be aware of? We couldn't ask back then on account of those elven bastards chasing us."

"Oh. Um, not really. Well, I hope the others are okay, like Inigo, Marcus, Nora, everyone. It's been over twenty years though, so I shouldn't be too hopeful. Besides, save for Ingrid, Lars, and the other Nords we've known, I am very skeptical of any of them being here in this province. Nothing else, really. And don't worry about what you said earlier, its fine. You don't need to memorize every detail of my life, especially things I want to forget about."

"I see. Well, I remembered you being very, very tense just before the Sleep. Did you have a flashback, or something else?"

"Uh, I don't... I don't know. Can we continue this later? I don't feel like talking about the Battle right now. Maybe later, when we reach the College."

"Oh absolutely. I'm just saying that we're here for you. I know it was hard for you to flee the battle, but please, if there's anything we can do to help just say so."

"Thanks Kam. I don't know what I'd do without you two. If I were the only one left, I'd probably lose my mind. Oh, there she is. Let's see what Mil's got to say," finished Nadiya. Kamilia looked at Nadiya with sympathetic eyes and then turned her attention to her sister.

"Good news, there are horses! And better yet, a nice, hardy carriage! A little dirty, but nothing a bit of work could clean."

"That's great! Some good news to start the day. Okay, so anything else before we pack up and leave?" Nadiya asked to the twins.

Both sisters raised an eyebrow. Kamilia said, "So soon? You think we should leave immediately?"

"Yeah, it'd be best to start our journey as soon as possible. Why, something wrong?"

"Not really. I don't mind packing up, but leaving right away, in the daytime?"

"We have hoods. As long as we don't expose ourselves too much we should be fine. Have you two slept and ate well enough?"

The twins nodded. "We're fine physically, or at least I am. You?" asked Milana to her twin. The other sister nodded, and then Milana said, "Okay, I guess we can move out. We honestly were expecting you to take more time to analyze and read those maps and records."

"Oh. Well, I think I'm set. We're bringing those books and other works anyways; we can adjust our plan if need be on the go. So, are we ready?"

"One more thing. I don't know about you two, but do you girls think that us being the only survivors out of several dozen is a little... odd? I mean, did someone plan to keep us three alive, and only us three?" asked Kamilia quite randomly.

She looked at her sister and one of her best friends for their response. They looked at her with confused looks. Moments later, Milana spoke up and said, "You know, it is a little strange. We weren't all grouped together, and now that I think about it I remember seeing my casket next to a couple of ones that had freshly dead members. I forgot their names, but anyway yeah. It seems like those smugglers skipped over our caskets. Any opinions Nadiya?"

The Breton girl pondered the possibilities for some time, and then offered her thoughts. "Maybe it was fate? Maybe the Divines thought to save us for some reason?"

Upon hearing her opinion, slight smiles appeared on the twins' faces and Kamilia said, "Huh. Maybe. Even if it's all a coincidence, I'd like to think that's what happened. Honestly, that seems the most likely scenario at the moment."

"But if that's the case then what are our destinies? Are we supposed to do great things?" asked Milana to no one in particular.

"Whatever the reason I'm sure we'll find out in time. Maybe not for a while, but eventually. Now if there's nothing else, shall we get going?" concluded Nadiya.

Satisfied, the twins agreed with no other questions. For the next two hours, the three packed up all necessary things and sorted out their personal items. They all changed into their semi-formal apparel courtesy of the coven and checked their weapons. Nadiya put her battlemage armor away in a chest, deeming it too high-profile to wear casually. "I mean, walking into a city rebelling against the Empire wearing Imperial battlemage gear, yeah, great idea," she said with heavy sarcasm when asked about the armor. Instead, she opted for her attire given to her when she joined the coven, a formal-looking outfit that doubled as a light armor of sorts. Soon, they were all pack up and began to haul their baggage up outside to put onto the carriage.

Upon stepping foot outside for the first time in more than twenty years, Nadiya realized something rather important. "Good gods, I forgot how bright it is in daylight!" she exclaimed. "Yeah, we figured. This was why we were kinda iffy on leaving so soon," said Kamilia, trying to shield her eyes and carry her things at the same time rather awkwardly.

"Damn, this light is ridiculous even with hoods. There should be a way around this," Nadiya muttered as they went up to the carriage.

"What, like wearing a full mask over our eyes?" suggested Milana sarcastically, while trying to place her bags with much difficulty. "Don't worry, we'll get used to it in a moment."

"Hmmm, maybe," replied Nadiya. For the next few minutes, the three struggled to put away their things while ignoring the sun, with much effort and little success. Suddenly, Nadiya shouted "I'VE GOT IT!" Startled, the twins yelped and fell from the top of the carriage onto the ground. Dazed due to the fall and having their hoods fallen off their heads which left them uncomfortably exposed to the sun, they looked at Nadiya in irritation. "Seriously? Did you have to SCREAM in our EARS?!" yelled Kamilia, emphasizing the two bold words.

"Ugh. Nadiya, what is it?" asked Milana, exasperated by the inconvenience.

"Darkly tinted glass that goes over your eyes! Sunglasses! So basically they're like regular glasses with a black tint to shield our eyes from the damned sun, and yeah! Sunglasses! It's interesting, you'd think that someone would've invented that by now. Come, what do you girls think? Something that I could market and make a lot a gold off of?"

At this suggestion the twins glared at her intensely for coming up with such an absurd idea. Then, Kamilia started to snicker, quickly turning into full-blown laughter. "What's so funny Kam?" asked a bewildered Milana.

"Oh come on Mil, that's hilarious! Sunglasses, hah! We needed something to lighten our spirits, and this was one of the most ridiculous things I've heard in a while!" replied Kamilia, laughing harder by the second. "You know how huge glasses are, what makes you think that people would want something like that on their faces all the time?" Milana glared at her boisterous sister, then gradually she came to follow her in laughter, realizing the absurdity of the suggestion. They both laughed for several moments, happy to have some joy in their lives for the first time in a long time. During all this, Nadiya folded her arms and made a face.

Humph! I'll show them. I'll make some sunglasses and then we'll see who's laughing later! All I have do is figure out a way to make glasses easier to fit on faces. thought Nadiya. At least they're happy though. It's good to see them laugh genuinely since, hell, before the war.

"Okay girls, okay laugh it off. Let's finish packing and then we'll be on our way."

Over an hour after packing up their things securely in the obnoxious sunlight, cleaning up the carriage, and feeding the two horses, they double-checked the den for anything they might need. Once content, they started on their journey, noting to inform officials about the existence of the illicit operation that was going on. Was being the key word.

Since the den was situated in a little island within a pond, the three vampires had to carefully maneuver the carriage and horses onto a rickety-looking raft to get transport them to the mainland. Luckily there were no complications and not twenty minutes later, upon reaching the opposite shore, the three began on their journey north to Windhelm.

Nadiya decided to take the driver seat, owing to her greater experience in handling horses and her desire to see the snowy wilderness of Skyrim up close. She got onto a dirt road that started from the pond and followed it, assuming that this one would lead them to the main road.

The twins stayed inside the carriage, doing some more reading in order to learn more about Skyrim while exchanging small talk every so often. Hours after leaving the pond, while they were quietly studying, Milana looked up and said, "Hey Kam?"

Kamilia looked up and asked, "What's up?"

"Did Nadiya say anything about why she was so tense, like I asked you to?"

"Not really. She did say she was worried about the others like Nora and Inigo. Other than that, she wasn't too willing to talk about things from back then."

"Alright. I hope that she'll be willing to talk about these things soon. Honestly, I'm a bit worried for her. I don't want her to have all of those feelings bottled up. What if something causes her to remember whatever made her so tense and she goes berserk? I don't want anything bad to happen to our friend, she's been through a lot over the past few years. I mean, as in before we Slept."

"Mil, she's a strong girl, you know that. I don't know about you, but if I captured and forced into service to scum like the Thalmor, I don't think I'd be sane at all. How many people do you know became fully rehabilitated more or less after enduring the worst the Thalmor had to offer within a month or so of escaping? Now, what I think would be the best way to help draw these repressed thoughts out would be to give her more time to cope and slowly she'll be willing to open up and talk. I'm not sure if these feelings are so strong that they'll overpower her and drive her to do, well, bad things, so I want to keep things going slow and steady."

"Okay Kam. I'll leave the therapeutic part to you then, and I'll focus on our plans to deal with the Thalmor. After all, you were always the relatable one."

"Oh come on Mil, it's not as if you're completely and totally socially inept, if that's what you're implying."

"You know what I mean. Back at the fair, from before the War? When you managed to scheme your way through those guards and got Nadiya, Reyan, and Ingrid to play those cheese pranks on those insufferable nobles?"

"Gods, who could ever forget that!"

The resounding laughter came to Nadiya's ears as she was looking in awe at the landscape. The land is certainly beautiful, and very snowy too! she thought. She had never seen so much snow, only once when she traveled to study at Bruma, within the Jerall Mountains. She hadn't gone out into the mountains during her time there, but she could see the great peaks up close from the city, so full of snow.

As she observed the land and its critters while directing the horses, she came to remember how cold it was back in Bruma. She had to wear a great fur cloak just to be able to walk outside. And now, although she could feel the cold, it did not affect her to the point where she needed warmer clothes despite only wearing her coven's lightly-tailored apparel.

She remembered how much fun she and her friends had up there, having snowball fights when taking breaks from their tasks and studies as students of the College of Whispers. Despite their meticulous and often redundant research, there was enough time to have a social life outside of the College, outside on the streets and outskirts of Bruma. She even went out on a couple of dates, but nothing lasting came out of them. Up in Bruma, things were simple and straightforward. Hell, everything was back then. Up until the War over a year later.

Nadiya was in the middle of a field trip to Skingrad when the Dominion initiated their invasion, and when she went to assist nearby Legionnaires, she found herself a captive in short order. After her escape she went into rehabilitation and was released after a month and a week. She would have spent more time recovering were it not for the fact that she was a Legionnaire, and due to the astonishing advance of the Aldmeri armies she was prematurely pressed into service for the Shadow Legion, the famed Legion known for the legendary Imperial Battlemages. She had joined the Imperial Army as a reservist while a student, knowing her skills was best suited for becoming a battlemage were it necessary to join the Imperial armies, and she believed that she could do much good as a Legionnaire. Unfortunately, her training was incomplete when she was captured. As such, she was not fully prepared to fight against the people that not only enslaved her but sought to dominate Tamriel. More than once she nearly lost her mind as she participated in battles all while people of all races and ages fought and died all around her. The Dominion viewed the Empire and its people as weak and inferior, fit for subjugation, and thus waged total war. Because of this doctrine Nadiya had to witness the worst of the atrocities wrought by them, something that she had already seen during her time in captivity. Sometimes there was nothing she could do to stop them.

She did hold firm through the toughest battles though, either through sheer force of will or through intervention. Often the twins were there for her despite not being soldiers themselves, being part of a militia group. Lars was almost always present, as he was one of the regulars assigned to supplement the Shadow Legion, along with Nimeia, Walks-with-Wind, and Alanni. In short, though her fortitude was tested immensely once again, she was able to pull through, though not without more scars both mental and physical.

And now she was alone with the twins in a strange and foreign land. No other familiar faces would be there to back them up if things went bad. To survive, they would have to find their own way in Skyrim, this time without old friends and family. Nadiya did not know what the future held in store for her and the twins, but she hoped that the Divines would keep them safe for as long as the Thalmor and the Dominion roamed Tamriel.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this work, the Elder Scrolls series belongs to Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks

Thankfully there were no complications on the way to the main road. Once arriving at that road, Kamilia took over as the driver while Nadiya and Milana stayed in the cabin to plan and chat about current events. As they went north Nadiya talked with Milana about many things, mostly personal thoughts on their situation. After a full day of travel, Milana took over as driver while Kamilia went back inside. This switching around was the only real noteworthy thing that happened in the days as they traveled to the city of Windhelm. On occasion they would pass by other travelers, both on foot and by horse, but none of them would hail them down to rest and converse, which was not uncommon back in the Imperial province. Most would only glance at them and then look away quickly without any other acknowledgement, while some ignored them altogether. The rest wore apparel that looked like what the rebels wore based on descriptions and illustrations in some of the texts Nadiya and the twins have read, whom they avoided as best as they could.

Halfway to the city that was the center of the rebellion, after passing by another group of travelers without any dialogue exchanged between the two groups, Kamilia remarked to Nadiya, "If this is how the Nords act like as a whole, then we shouldn't have too much trouble fitting in. We can just keep to ourselves without anyone suspecting anything out of the ordinary."

Nadiya looked up from her book with interest in Kamilia's statements. She started, "Keep in mind that Skyrim is in the middle of a rebellion Kam. I think it's just the current times that has all those travelers shying away from strangers. All the Nords we've known were affable enough. Actually, scratch that. They were the opposite of these Nords we have passed by in our journey. The ones we've known were usually very boisterous, when it came to the guys that is. Nord women tend to be more reserved from what I remember, but still open."

"Well the Nords we knew grew up in Cyrodiil. I think that because they were exposed to many different cultures, they're more open and friendly than these provincials. Not saying the Nords are inherently closed-minded, but I'm guessing there's some kind of cultural suspicion of outsiders, at least when it comes to the locals. I could be wrong, but that's what I think so far."

"Let's save our judgments on these people until we have some first-hand experience with them."

"Huh. You saying that is kinda funny. You're usually the one to make assumptions at a glance."

"That was then, this is now. We're not in familiar land, and we need to be more cautious."

"You're definitely right. You know, you seem to have changed a bit Nad."

"Hey, you know how I feel about that nickname."

"Oh come on, just because of that one 'incident' with Professor Ominata?"

"Duh you dud. And, about what you said, me changing a bit? I think so too. I've had a lot of time to think about things, about the state of our Empire. I... well, I just want to find a way to get back at those Thalmor bastards without attracting too much attention. It'll be hard with them having the authority to track down practically anyone they want without open reprisal though. I just want revenge," murmured Nadiya, her voice growing harsher with each word.

"Hey now, me and my sister want to get back at them too," said Kamilia growing serious. "But don't lose yourself like you nearly did those times on the battlefield."

"I'm fine Kam. Let's just get back to reading, shall we?"

"Reading, reading, and more reading. I swear, you'd be a perfect librarian if you hadn't become a Legionnaire."

"Yeah, but I'm too social to do that. Mil would be a better fit I think."

"Right, right."

After this exchange, not much else happened on the journey. They passed by travelers with increasing regularity, and there was more snow the further north they ventured. There were no environmental obstructions to their journey save for the occasional snowstorm that would force them to camp until it passed. Travelers continued to pass by without acknowledgement, and on the final stretch to their destination numerous Stormcloaks could be seen, whom Nadiya and the twins ignored as best as they can. Five days after their initial start from the Pond, the three arrived at the outskirts of Windhelm, the snowy center of the rebellion.

They parked their carriage at a stable just next to the bridge leading to the city, and just before they paid the stable keeper to both watch the carriage and feed the horses, they casted masking spells that concealed their vampiric nature. Though they looked almost completely mortal save for a glowing, red-yellowish tinge to the eyes, none of them wanted to risk the possibility of exposure. Such is the way of the vampire, always taking great care to conceal themselves in order to survive in civilized society. Of course there's always the possibility to live out in the wilds with little worry about vampire hunters, but the three felt themselves too civilized of people to be living in caves and other dark places.

Once they paid the keeper and took some extra and unneeded goods from the carriage to sell inside Windhelm, the three began to walk to the entrance at the far end of the bridge. The skies were clear, and the sun was just beginning to rise. The three walked quietly for a bit with a small crowd, content with the beautiful morning weather, the sights, and the feeling of being back in civilization. Though the city was just beginning to wake up, the three could already hear much activity and commotion mostly coming down from the docks that housed many vessels of all sizes. About halfway through the bridge, Kamilia spoke up.

"So here we are!" she exclaimed in a cheerful tone to no one in particular. "Finally, after being cramped up in the carriage for nearly a week!"

"Kam, the carriage is pretty large, considering it's made to transport a family," Milana retorted. "I thought you would be more appreciative of it."

"Oh I am, it's just that you're taking things too literal Mil. Like the time you thought Reyan was serious about you being a terrible dancer, which I actually agree with. And then you went to your dorm and pouted like a little baby."

"What?! You shut your mouth about that Kam. You lack tact, something you can't get your inferior mind to comprehend."

"Make me. And not at all, I'm more tact than you!"

"Oh please. You were the one that messed up Eryiae's little plan to hook up with that one guy, what's-his-face."

"I for one think that both of you are tactless, at least compared to me," Nadiya said, butting in before Kamilia could begin to talk back to her sister.

"Wha - no, nuh uh. I don't know what you're talking about, Nad," said Kamilia slyly, emphasizing the last word.

"Hey, what did I say about that name Kam?"

"Oh Nad, quit being such an n'wah. I mean, that was years ago. Literally!" Milana said with a smirk.

Both Nadiya and Kamilia turned to stare at Milana with confusion, unused to hearing Milana saying such 'low' words as she once put it. "Whoa Mil, didn't think you'd be one to speak so lowly," joked Nadiya. "Yeah, right? That's like what, one out of ten times I've heard you talk like a sailor?" piped in Kamilia. "And I've lived with you my whole life! So far anyways."

"Seriously? I'm not that high-brow, not like certain Altmer we've known."

"Altmer? Don't remind me. Wait, hah, that reminds me; speaking of high-brow elves, remember Inessia? Remember when she talked down to that ragged-looking elder and then he gave her a verbal beat-down that made her face red as tomatoes?" asked Kamilia with an increasing smile. "Oh gods, that was fantastic!"

The other two laughed heartedly at the story and they went about recalling the more stuck-up nobles that they've known back in Cyrodiil. They traded stories as they walked, content with the nostalgic feelings that they hadn't felt for a long time. Minutes later, they arrived at the large doors and waited in a line for the guards to inspect them. "Looks like the rebellion has people more jittery than we thought," whispered Nadiya to her friends, noticing the shifty looks people were giving each other. The twins nodded in agreement, and about ten minutes later they were all cleared to go inside. As they went in, the three vampires suddenly found themselves facing a small crowd acting excited. Nadiya quickly told the twins to head to the market in the western part of the city to sell off the excess supplies while she went to see what was going on with the crowd. "Meet me in that Hall straight ahead, like around noontime," she told the twins before approaching the crowd.

Nadiya walked into the mass of people and pushed her way through with care, realizing for the first time how short she was compared to the average Nord, the indigenous race in Skyrim. When she got to the front, she saw a couple of large Nordic men standing over a stunned Dunmer woman with what appeared to be her belongings scattered on the ground, in the process of chastising her. Nadiya stopped and decided to listen in to gather details about the situation, though in her mind she was already feeling biased against the two men.

"That's what you get elf, for not supporting the Stormcloaks! And there's more to come if you grey-skins don't leave our land soon!" snarled one of the men.

"You come here when you're not wanted and pollute our city with your stink, maggot!" added the other with fury. Nadiya heard the crowd beginning to become agitated and generally agreeing with the two Nords. "Hey Rolff, maybe they only came here because they're a bunch of Imperial spies!"

Upon hearing these words, the Dunmer woman stood up and spoke to them angrily. "How dare you! This whole war isn't even our fight! And claiming that we're Imperial spies?! What a ridiculous accusation!"

"Oh really? Then let's see those papers you're carrying elf," Rolff retorted. "Prove that you're not a spy!"

"What? These are my personal things! You have no right to search me just because you think I'm a spy, of all the absurd things you could accuse me of!"

"Yes we do, because you're not one of us; you're a damn elf! Hell, you're probably in league with those yellow bastards too! Angrenor, hold her down! I'm gonna see what those papers really say!"

When Rolff said these words, Nadiya knew she had to get help before the crowd makes it difficult and even dangerous to stop this whole affair, and before the two do something bad to the woman. She tried to look for the local guards, and when she spotted a couple of them casually standing around, she ran up to them as quick as they could.

"Um hello? Aren't you going to stop them before things get bloody?"

"What? Why should we stop them?" asked one of the guards lazily.

"Probably because they're about to search her illegally, and maybe even get the crowd to lynch her?!"

"So what? Rolff's probably right you know. I would be surprised if they weren't spies. Who cares about the elves anyways, they started the war. We just tolerate them because they're cheap labor, like those lizards on the docks."

"What? They're not even the same race as the Altmer! Have some sympathy!"

"Whatever. They all look the same to me. Look, unless they cause a riot I don't care what happens. It's not my concern."

Seeing that the conversation was going nowhere, Nadiya turned around and went back, hoping it wasn't too late. She ran through the crowd disregarding those in the way, and arrived at the front to see the Rolff and Angrenor combing through her things and hold her back respectively. Nadiya took a breath and steeled herself, hoping she would come out too roughed up. She then yelled, "Hey uglies!" The two men looked up and around until they focused their eyes on the Breton girl marching up to them. "What in the name of Oblivion are you two doing?"

"What's it look like little girl? We're checking if she's a spy. Can't be too careful these days. Why, what's it to you Breton?" sneered Rolff.

"This little girl is going to kick your asses unless you leave her alone. This is absolutely ridiculous, and you two should leave her alone!"

The two ruffians along with the crowd stared at the bold Breton girl, while the Dunmer woman looked at her with surprise, not expecting a stranger in Windhelm to stand up for her, much less someone not a Dark Elf. After a few seconds, Rolff erupted into laughter, and Angrenor followed soon thereafter. Some soft giggles drifted out of the crowd, but for the most part everyone around went quiet in anticipation of what was to come.

After they calmed themselves down enough, Rolff marched up to Nadiya with an arrogant smirk and put his arms on his hips in contempt once he reached her, while Angrenor stayed behind to hold back the Dunmer woman. "Really? Get lost you foreigner, you don't understand our plight," he snapped. "Maybe wherever you're from things are nice and dandy, but we Nords have to remain vigilant for any kind of mischief, especially with the war going on."

"But from what I've seen, you two are just being bullies. I can understand being cautious, but outright assaulting someone just because you think they're an enemy? What has she even done to you two?"

"What, besides being a filthy elf, and eating our food, AND not helping the Stormcloaks? We Nords are in a war for independence against the damned Imperials, and Ulfric just lets those freeloaders in the city to take up OUR space?! At least the lizards aren't allowed in here, those maggots aren't worth half a Nord. But we should be throwing the elves out, all they're doing is squatting in OUR homes, in OUR land, hogging OUR resources, and taking OUR jobs! Screw them, Skyrim belongs to the Nords, and the Nords ONLY!"

The crowd largely voiced words of approval, and some even cheered at those strong words. After they quieted down, the crowd turned to see what the girl had to say, who crossed her arms as well and looked at Rolff with a disapproving look. "Wow, okay. Looks like you have a bit of a chip on your shoulder. Not only do you hate non-Nords, but you also want to throw out everyone not a Nord, and with force? Skyrim is part of Tamriel, and despite your patriotic bullshit everyone should be able to live where they want and how they want no matter the home province of their race. We're all in this land together, and driving others apart is not the way to live in peace. Look, how about you take your racism somewhere else, where you can bitch and moan all you want about how the poor Dunmer make things so bad for you? You're just making people ill with your words."

"What?! Who the hell are you to tell us what to do?"

"Me? I'm no one in the grand scheme of things. But for you, I'm the one who's going to kick you two to Oblivion and back if you don't leave her alone, like I said earlier."

"The hell? We don't need to take that from you! C'mon Angrenor, let's -"

Rolff never got to finish his sentence, as Nadiya took the opportunity to uppercut him before he could strike, making him fly up a bit before landing in agony. Angrenor widened his eyes in surprise but quickly gathered himself, owing to his previous experience as a Stormcloak. With a massive battle cry, he let go of the Dunmer woman and charged Nadiya with the intent to pummel her. Noticing the large Nord coming right at her, she sidestepped him before he could touch her, though she stumbled over a box, property of the Dunmer woman.

The crowd instantly grew excited at seeing action and began to chant various obscenities at both parties. They formed a ring around the fighters, blocking incoming guards rushing over to stop things from becoming too chaotic. In the meantime, Rolff stood up recovered though his jaw stung with great pain. He went over to Angrenor, whom stopped short of running into the crowd to ready themselves against their surprisingly able opponent. The two Nords started to circle around Nadiya together, both sides watching each other's movements, waiting for an opportunity to lash out. The Dunmer woman backed up to the nearby wall, gathering as many of her things as she could before the fighters could mess up her things even more.

Rolff whispered to Angrenor, "Alright, she might pack a punch but she's still outnumbered. Let's come from opposite sides and work things out from there." Angrenor agreed and they both split, rushing over to their positions. Seeing this, Nadiya went to the center and stood her ground there. Once all three reached their positions, Rolff called out, "Okay Breton, you had your fun and I'll admit you pack a mean uppercut, but you're outnumbered and outmatched. Give it up!"

"Bug off you manchildren! Leave her alone, and I'll let you two go!"

"Well, it looks like you're going to get your pretty face dirty then!" taunted Angrenor. With a roar, Rolff charged, as did Angrenor. Assessing her options, Nadiya stood her ground, and just before they reached her, she sprinted right at Rolff as if to attack him, and then skillfully maneuvered herself in such a way that she avoided him entirely, and then she quickly kicked him on his back right at Angrenor. They weren't able to stop themselves before they collided and fell over, both very much dazed by the surprising move. Nadiya then took the lull in action by using magic to levitate them to their dismay, and then forcefully slammed their bodies together once again. She then brought them to several feet above a nearby cart filled with garbage, and pounded them down into the cart with great force. This resulted in the two instigators lying sprawled across the cart, confused and unable to resume the fight, as well as smelling like rotten seafood.

The crowd then quieted, stunned at how the seemingly innocuous woman made fools out of the two men who fought against her, both being experienced soldiers. The incoming guards took this opportunity to breach through, just in time to see Nadiya walking triumphantly over to the instigators. At this, the guards buffed up and readied their weapons and shields. The one with an open-faced helmet, presumably the local commander shouted, "Stop right there! You have been witnessed committing crimes against the local citizens by starting this fight. Come with us and we'll see to it that you're treated as fair as possible in jail, and if you resist we will not hesitate to use force!"

"Treating me fairly? Like how you treat the non-Nords here as second-class citizens?! You might have a strong case if I had attacked without provocation, but I went up to your fellow guard there and he declined to intervene on behalf on the Dunmer over there! I had to do something before things got out of hand!" retorted Nadiya with anger. At her mention, the Dunmer woman widened her eyes and tried to walk away, but a couple of the guards went up and brought her over to their commander. At the same time, Rolff and Angrenor were brought up from the cart and to the commander as well, the guards visibly gagging at the smell.

"Oh really? Is this true Sorik?" asked the commander, turning to the guard Nadiya had pointed out.

"Not at all sir, this girl is lying through her teeth. I've only saw her walk up and start beating on Rolff and Angrenor over there, and when she finished beating them up with that cursed magic, she tossed them around and into the cart like an angry child," the guard replied coolly. "As for the Elf, she helped start this altercation." His fellow guard voiced in agreement, and the commander turned back towards Nadiya. "Well, seeing as I trust the opinions of my soldiers over a stranger, I have little choice but to arrest you."

"WHAT?! Are you kidding me?! I was standing up for that woman over there! She couldn't defend herself! Here, ask her!"

"All I see is a girl that somehow managed to beat up two former soldiers. But fine. What's your case Dunmer?"

"Um, hi. Yes, she did fight those people but it was because those two ruffians there started this whole mess! They pushed me over while I was carrying my things, and were about to unjustly search me because they think me a spy! All that girl did was defend me from those fools!" the Dunmer woman said in exasperation. "Please believe us, we're telling the truth!"

The commander sighed and rolled his eyes. He then said, "Look, I don't think that-"

"They're telling the truth you know, Suvaris and the newcomer," came a voice from the crowd. Everyone involved turned to the newcomer, and they saw the crowd parting way for a prominent-looking Nordic man. The commander furrowed his eyes and the belligerents started to grow uncomfortable, while the stance of the guards changed slightly to one of apprehension. Nadiya herself looked at the man skeptically, unsure of what to think about him. The man continued, "I saw the girl right there run for those guards and apparently they declined to help, because she ran right back to deal with those troublemakers. That's why everyone here is in this whole mess. If the guards did their duty properly, none of this foolish business would have happened."

"Brunwulf, are you calling my men liars?" asked the commander suspiciously.

"Right as rain. They just stood by doing nothing while a crime was being committed by our friends Rolff and Angrenor there. I vouch for the girl, she did the right thing unlike the two guardsmen that we're talking about," said Brunwulf with a firm look. He then crossed his arms and added, "If you want, we can take this up to Ulfric and let him sort things out."

"You realize he'd likely be in favor of Rolff's side and the city guards, considering his stances?"

"That he may be, but the crowd knows what really happened." Brunwulf then turned to the crowd and began to speak loudly, and in a rousing manner. "My friends, everyone, we've all seen what happened, right? We saw how those two fools decided to bully Suvaris out of misguided patriotism. Now these are difficult times indeed, and it's not wrong to stand up for what you believe in. But making things worse for everyone not a Nord is not going to make things better, like our Breton friend said earlier. We can't just go around and push down others just because they're not one of us! We'd just be reinforcing the belief that we are all an intolerant bunch, unable to accept new things. Divines sake, these two are acting like a couple of spoiled children! The Dunmer people already have a tough time adapting to Skyrim, is it really necessary to act all high and mighty towards them? No! We're Nords! We are supposed to have honor and integrity!

"Following Rolff and Angrenor would only lead us to ruin! Please, I'm not asking much of you all, only that you do what is right: being an honorable Nord by being accepting of others, no matter who or what they are. This isn't weakness, nor is it against our traditions. Rather it shows our strength, as a people able to accept changing things and turbulent times. This is why Rolff and Angrenor are wrong. They have allowed their prejudice to carry themselves away, and into dishonorable action.

"And the guards! The ones standing by, not lifting a finger to stop this nonsense? They're just as guilty as these two fools are! If they can't be bothered to protect those in need, no matter their race, what good does it do us as Nords? Nothing! Nay, things will get worse!

As he spoke, the crowd went from being disdainful of him due to his public support of minorities to being more mindful of the situation Suvaris was in. Despite the general suspicion of non-Nords in Windhelm, the respect the crowd had for the veteran of the Great War was high. As they listened and came to understand the situation, the crowd started to nod and agree with his words.

After finishing his passionate speech, Brunwulf turned towards the commander, satisfied with seeing how his words have swayed the opinions of the crowd to his favor. He then said, "Look, the people know what is right. Let the girl go, as well as Suvaris. I don't care what you do with those fools there, only that you find a proper punishment for them. After all, pushing down a woman and trying to frame her for supposed spy activity is more than unreasonable; it's criminal. You should discipline your two guards as well. Wouldn't want to have guards that aren't fulfilling their duty."

The commander looked at him sharply, and then towards the crowd. He saw within it the faces of people moved by the words of a war hero. Despite his reservations towards Brunwulf's sympathy for the Dunmer and Argonians, the commander, along with most in Windhelm respected the man for doing much in the Great War. And now it seems that Brunwulf's charisma coupled with his powerful speech was leaving him with little choice. The people in Windhelm may be suspicious of outsiders, but now, for the moment anyways, people were listening to the war hero. And if the commander made the unpopular choice, things may get complicated.

"Alright, alright. You made your case Brunwulf. You there, Breton," said the commander with an undertone of disparagement. "What is your name?"

Nadiya opened her mouth, and then hesitated. Should she tell her true name? Even in a city that is unknown to her? After what seemed like minutes though were really seconds, she decided not to, as recent events have put her in the spotlight. And in a city that is the center for a rebellion too. Yeah, an alias would be best, she decided in her mind. If my true name gets out, it may attract unwanted attention. Shoot, I gotta tell the twins to do this.

"Maria. Maria's my name," she said quickly, taking a few seconds longer to reply than what was comfortable for the commander. Internally, he grew suspicious. However, he maintained a stern façade and continued with his questions.

"Really? You sure about that?"

"Yes sir. You think I'd forget my own name?"

"Took you a moment to say your name."

"I got a little winded during the fight, that's all. So... can I go now?"

"No last name?"

"Oh! It's Laertes."

"Maria Laertes. Why are you in Windhelm?"

"Me and my colleagues were on our way to the College of Winterhold, and we stopped by to rest and get some supplies for the rest of the journey north."

"Is that so? Well then, that explains why the crowd was cowed. There aren't many mages here save for Ulfric's court wizard. Actually, I don't know any other than him here in this city. Alright. What exactly did Sorik and Eran say to get out of assisting Suvaris?"

"Your guards? Um, I remember something about them saying they'd only intervene if a riot breaks out, otherwise they'll just be looking the other way."

"Sir, that's all lies," interjected said guard. "What I told you-"

"Shut it Sorik. If Brunwulf says something with that kind of conviction he's not lying. Not like he does anyway. You two, take Sorik and Eran to the barracks and I'll go discipline them later. And you two, take Rolff and Angrenor to the jail. I'll talk to Galmar about this whole nonsense after we're finished here. The rest of you disperse the crowd, this whole affair is enough excitement for today. Now, get to it."

"Yes sir," replied one of the guards. She and another guard went to go lead the neglectful guards back to the barracks, while another pair went to take Rolff and Angrenor to the jail, despite their loud protests. The rest went over to the crowd and started to shoo them away. While that happened, the commander turned around and motioned for Nadiya, Brunwulf, and Suvaris to come forward.

"Alright then Maria, other than us filing a report there's nothing else to worry about. We will be keeping an eye on you though, as you did participate in a fight that isn't related to drinking. Don't do anything else so rash again, and we won't have any more problems. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir. Don't worry, I don't randomly go up to people and knock them down."

"Right. Okay then, you're free to go. Your lucky day, seeing how Brunwulf managed to get everyone to support you. Be safe during your time in Windhelm. And if some issue like what happened today comes up again, then come see either me, the Jarl, or Brunwulf first; we can handle these things best."

"Thanks. I'm glad you believe us."

"Well, Brunwulf's an honorable man, and what he says is generally well-respected. So mostly you should be thanking him. Now, away with you."

Nadiya nodded and then went away from the small group, heading towards the mess that was still lying around dropped by Suvaris. For a few minutes, she went around collecting all the things that the Dunmer woman had dropped, putting them in a pile that Suvaris had already started just before Nadiya brawled with the two ruffians. Nadiya was bending down to pick up a small box when she heard some hurried footsteps coming towards her. She looked up and saw Suvaris walking quickly over to her with a smile on her face. Nadiya picked up the box and then stood up straight, returning a smile to the Dunmer. When she reached Nadiya, Suvaris started, "Oh thank you! Maria, was it? If you hadn't stopped those fools in time, I fear they would have ruined my things, and maybe even taken their search further! Once again, thank you Maria!"

"Oh it's no big deal," smiled Nadiya with goodwill. "I'm just doing what any normal person would do. But I'm curious, if Windhelm is so apathetic and hostile to your people, why settle here?"

"Because times are tough my friend. The Dunmer people have already made a long journey, and at least here they're relatively safe," said Brunwulf as he came up to the two. "They all faced great challenges in migrating to this province, and it'd be downright inhumane to turn them away."

"To elaborate on what Brunwulf said, Skyrim is the closest province that'd be willing to take us Dunmer in, Windhelm in particular. The weakened Empire makes travel dangerous, and the further you go the greater the risk. So we mostly settled here, although more than a few Dunmer went elsewhere around the province," Suvaris said. "Personally, I'd have continued towards Solitude, but the work I do for Torbjorn means I'll be here for a while. Given the times we live in right now, I don't mind a few more months here.

"I need to head back to work. Hopefully Torbjorn will understand my being late. Thank you once again, and let's hope that those fools will think twice before they try something so brash," finished Suvaris. She turned and wished Brunwulf thanks for his part in ending the whole affair before walking away. Brunwulf looked at Nadiya and said, "Seeing that you stood up for Suvaris, I'm guessing that you aren't short-sighted like some of my Nordic brethren. That I respect, especially given with what my homeland is dealing with these days."

"Thanks. I'm surprised that the guards weren't doing anything about it though. Is this normal here nowadays?" implored Nadiya.

"Unfortunately so. We Nords aren't the most welcoming of others at first sight, and given the civil war there's a lot of things that make many of us in paranoid and prone to violence," replied Brunwulf. He turned and beckoned Nadiya to follow him. She followed him as they walked to a nearby building with what seemed to be many travelers huddling outside. "My name is Brunwulf Free-Winter by the way, it's nice to meet you. I would have introduced myself earlier, but there were a few things we had to deal with. You are Maria Laertes, correct?"

"Yeah. And a pleasure to meet you too. So where are we headed?"

"Candlehearth Hall, the main tavern in this city. Figured I get you a warm meal and drinks on me, as a way of saying thanks for helping this city out."

"Oh, it's no big deal. You don't need to; I'm just doing what any good person would do."

"And a good person knows when to accept a Nord's generosity," said Brunwulf with a hearty laugh. "Somehow I know you've been travelling for some time, so go ahead and order whatever you want inside, you've certainly earned it."

Not one to turn down a free meal, Nadiya agreed and followed the Nord inside. Once indoors, they took off their cloaks and set them aside on a rack. Nadiya kept her hood on though, since she didn't want scrutinizing eyes to see her own even with the masking spell active; her anxiety over being caught as a vampire saved her skin on more than one occasion. They went upstairs to sit at an open table and and ordered some breakfast while making small talk. Once it came, they started to eat and talk about themselves.

"Are you sure you want to pay for me? I can certainly afford this on my own," started Nadiya.

"Ah, don't worry Maria. It's all taken care of already. Just dig in and eat well, that's how you can pay me back!" he responded over his meal.

"Well alright then. Thank you once again," she told him. They continued to eat as the Nordic bards in the corner started to sing legendary ballads about the First Era, eventually catching Nadiya's ears. She had never heard Nordic bards sing before, and although their voices were not as elegant and refined as the singers back in Cyrodiil, there was something about their proud voices and words that interested Nadiya. As they continued to relay their tales of old to the audience, Nadiya slowed her eating and started to become engrossed by their art. Brunwulf smiled to himself, glad that this traveler was getting a better impression of Skyrim despite the sour experience she had with Rolff and Angrenor. As the ballad gradually wound down and ended, the Breton was the first to clap. At this Brunwulf laughed heartily and said to nearby patrons, "See, this is the way a newcomer should experience Skyrim: with good food and a great song about the old legends!" At this Nadiya shied away since she wanted to keep a low profile, but the jolly atmosphere assured her that things were alright.

The bards then started a new song after a brief rest, one that had a modern tone and message. "The Age of Oppression" it was called, and Nadiya started to pay attention after finishing the last of her food and drink. As the song went on, she realized it was blatantly antagonistic towards the Empire, and Nadiya grew uncomfortable what with all cheers the crowd was giving in support of the rebellion. These once formerly proud defenders of the Empire were now rebelling against the nation she swore an oath to, something that made Nadiya tense up. Of all the places that the coffins ended up in, they had to end up in the midst of a divided land. At least her and the twins didn't get taken to the Summerset Isles. That would have been a nightmare, to put it lightly.

A familiar voice interrupted her thoughts. "Maria? Everything alright?" asked a concerned-looking Brunwulf. "You became pretty quiet, and though we just met you don't seem to be the kind of person that keeps to themself."

"Oh I'm fine. I uh, just zoned out for a bit there, hah."

Brunwulf narrowed his eyes and said, "If it's because of the affection people have for the Stormcloaks then I understand. Outsiders and non-Nords tend not to be up for the Stormcloak cause, and I stand with them."

"Really? That's interesting. What made you decide to stand with them, outsiders that is?"

"Where to begin? Let's start with the fact that Ulfric doesn't care for anyone not a Nord. The Dark Elves are treated as second-class citizens here and are only barely accepted by my fellow Nords; he turns a blind eye to their struggles and doesn't acknowledge that their living conditions are terrible. Not only that, but the Argonians aren't even allowed inside the city. I served with the Empire in the Great War, and I fought alongside Legionnaires of many different races. I learned that despite our different looks and everyone hailing from all across Tamriel, and despite that we might not even like each other at times, all of us are the same people. We're all in the same struggle against the Dominion.

"Ulfric learned how to hate and make Nords feel the same way. Anyone who's not one of us can expect some prejudice in this city and other Stormcloak holds of Skyrim. If you're an elf or one of those so-called 'beastfolk,' take great care about what you say or what you do; better yet, avoid Stormcloak territory altogether. Ulfric made sure of all this by preying on the fear Nords have about outsiders. I don't know what kind of a province we'd be living in if he didn't start this rebellion, but I'm sure it would be better than the one we have right now, what with blood between family and bandits running loose. A rebellion pitting brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives against one another. And for what? For him to become High King? To take the fight to the Dominion?" At this, Brunwulf sighed. The tavern had died down in commotion and the bards were only playing soft melodies now, fitting for the current times.

Nadiya waited for Brunwulf to finish with his meal, and then they spent some more time discussing current events. After a while, Nadiya turned to look at some footsteps coming towards them and saw that the twins had done some bartering and shopping. Nadiya introduced Milana and Kamilia to Brunwulf as Nora and Alanni respectively, who winked at them as she did so. After making acquaintances and Nadiya filling in the twins on what happened, Milana tapped Nadiya's arm and gestured for her to follow. They left Kamilia and Brunwulf behind, the war hero telling stories from before the war to the twin. Nadiya and Milana walked outside the tavern, and by the doorway they started to talk.

"So we've done our shopping and bought some things. All those excess supplies got us quite a bit of gold, though not many were interested in magical items. Also, there's not much new news; Skyrim is in a sort of standoff, the Empire and the Stormcloaks only mounting light skirmishes every so often. We did find that the Stormcloaks haven't been destroyed yet because the Empire is occupied with many other issues. The rebellion is definitely a huge problem, but the Imperials can't afford too many troops to reunite Skyrim because they're still rebuilding other parts of the Empire. Plus, with the Stormcloaks dividing the Nords it seems like there'll be war for some time."

"Just what I suspected. It's becoming more and more tempting to rejoin the Legion, but I need to hold off on that for now. Anything else?"

"No. I was thinking of meeting with the court wizard to sell the tomes I've brought. Then afterwards it'll all be up to you. Want to come along?"

"I suppose, there's not much else to do at the moment. Afterwards we could call it a day, rent a room at Candlehearth, and resume our journey tomorrow. Let's let Kamilia and Brunwulf know, then we'll head out."

At this, the two went back inside. They came back to see Brunwulf continuing with his stories and the other twin totally engrossed by his experiences. As Nadiya and Milana told the two where they'll be going, Brunwulf remembered he wanted to see Ulfric to continue his endless petition about seeking better treatment for the non-Nords. As a group, all got up and after they got their cloaks from the rack, they walked outside to head to the Palace of the Kings, the legendary abode for the first rulers of Men.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this work, the Elder Scrolls series belongs to Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks

Many Stormcloaks patrolled the palace grounds, paying close attention to any and all who approached. The Stormcloak commander that had ended the scuffle involving Nadiya happened to be in the courtyard of the palace, and was overseeing anyone intending to enter the palace. When the group of four walked up to him, Brunwulf took the lead and went to talk to the commander to Nadiya's relief; she was certain that things would be awkward were she the one to speak to him. Nevertheless, she pulled her hood a little closer around herself.

"Hello again commander. Everything alright since earlier today?"

"Brunwulf. Yes, everything's been quiet. Here to see Ulfric I presume?"

"Of course. And these three are here to see Wuunferth."

"Ah, I'd almost forgotten that Maria there is a mage. Figures she'd want to see Wuunferth. And the other two are…?"

"I'm Alanni, and this is my sister Nora. We're both mages as well, on our way to the College of Winterhold with ah, Maria here. After we see the court wizard we'll just head on out of the Palace."

"Alright then. You can all head on in, but I'd like a guard to escort you ladies to Wuunferth. Just as a security precaution."

"That's fine. We've no problem with that," replied Kamilia.

At this, the commander waved the guards to open the doors to the palace and ordered a nearby guardsman to escort the girls to the wizard. They all strode inside, and Nadiya took a moment to look around the great hall they all were now in. It was certainly spacious, with an empty throne at the other end of the hall, and the long table in the center filled with empty plates, bowls, goblets, and various utensils. Although the hall was mostly empty save for their group, their escort, and some guards standing around, the three vampires could make out much scuffling and noise coming from elsewhere in the Palace. By the sounds and smells, they sensed that there were a lot of people preparing a great deal of food. Nadiya was curious what sort of event would necessitate this much food and drink, and she would like to find out. But first it was off to see the wizard. Brunwulf turned to them and informed them that he will wait at the throne for Ulfric, and told them to follow the guard. They nodded and both parties went their own ways.

The escorting guard took them into a hallway on the side that led upstairs, and then all walked straight ahead. There was little talk between him and the three as they all went to meet this Wuunferth fellow. The guard led them to a door at the end of the hallway, and opened the door to reveal a hooded figure hunched over an enchanting table overrun with multiple tomes and scrolls.

"Aye, wizard! You've got some visitors today," said the guard in a gruff voice. The figure turned around, and the girls saw the visage of an elderly man come into view as he stepped forward for a closer look. "I'll be waiting by the door," the guard said as he walked just outside the room. The wizard came up to the girls and scrutinized them for a moment.

"I'm not used to having visitors, much less a small group. People in Windhelm often look down on magic despite it being the true power of this world. I haven't seen any of you before, so I suppose you all are travelers, right?" the wizard started. The three visitors nodded, and Nadiya replied, "Yes we are. We were looking to sell some tomes and possibly buy some as well."

"Very well. You can head over to that shelf and browse the tomes I have. I can take a look at the tomes you have right now."

Kamilia went over to check out the aforementioned shelf, while Nadiya and Milana unloaded Milana's backpack for Wuunferth to inspect. Some time went by as the three went about their business, and eventually Nadiya and Milana took the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the aged wizard.

"So, how was it you came to realize the power of magic, as you mentioned?" asked Milana.

"Well now, I'll have to go back way back, to before your grandparents even thought about making your parents! When I was a young boy, I was minding my own business when all of a sudden a pack of wolves attacked my family's farm. Me being only ten or so of course was scared out of my wits. So scared, I instinctively put up my hands when a wolf charged right me! I thought how nice it would be if they all disappeared, and lo and behold I managed to teleport that wolf elsewhere. With that done, I went on to teleport the other wolves to Nine knows where. Never did find out where they went. Anyways, that's when my parents realized my affinity for magic, and so they sent me off to the College of Winterhold when I came of age."

"Wow, how interesting! We're actually heading to the College ourselves, since we heard it's the only major magic institution in Skyrim," Nadiya chipped in.

"It is. Of course you have court wizards out there serving the Jarls, myself included, but generally we tend to be busy with our own work. You also have the occasional band of witches and vampires, but unless you're looking for trouble those are the sort of people you'd want to avoid.

"In the College, you'll find several masters of the major schools of magic, all of them willing to teach. If you're looking to become a mage there, then you'll be herded into the newest class of students. Eventually you'll become an official mage if you keep up in your studies there."

"It sounds like the College will be a good fit for us. We're pretty adept at magic, and we always like to learn more," said Milana.

"With an attitude like that, you'll do fine. And thank you for the tomes, they'll all come in handy. You there, by the shelves. Found anything you like?"

"I found some tomes on illusion that seem interesting. Kam, I have some on alteration, and Nadiya, some on conjuration," replied Kamilia.

"Well, looks like your friend knows what the good stuff is. Now, just a suggestion, but I advise you three to hold off on those tomes since you're heading to the College after all, unless there's something here you desperately need. You might be able to learn a few things there for free, as opposed to buying them from me."

"Aww, I thought you were going to hand it to us though!" said Kamilia, putting on her best pouty face.

"If I were a young lad I'd certainly be inclined to do so. But I'm at the age where frankly, I just don't care. I need funds for my projects anyhow."

"I was joking anyways. Well girls, what do y'all think?"

"He's got a point, I'm going to hold off on those," said Nadiya, with Milana voicing her agreement right after.

"Okay, I think I'll take this one on casting fear. I need to brush up on that spell anyhow. Here's the coin for it sir."

"Why thank you. A pleasure doing business with you girls, and I hope you'll find your time at the College to be productive."

The three said their goodbyes, packed their bags, then walked out to meet with the bored guard who immediately began to lead them back to the great hall. Once again, little was said as they all walked down the hall and back down the stairway with the large, ornate doors to the hall. The guard opened them with some effort, revealing strong voices arguing about something that echoed throughout the hall. They all stepped through, and the girls looked down the hall to see Ulfric Stormcloak for the first time, engaged in a debate with Brunwulf about the state of the minorities in Windhelm.

The man at the head of the rebellion sat lazily on his throne, with a clearly annoyed look on his face. He was dressed in a dark outfit with a rich fur cloak draped around him, looking to be a bear's fur. Fitting for the so-called Bear of Markarth, his nickname as Nadiya had read in a book on the journey to Windhelm. He certainly didn't look like someone an average person would want to trifle with. Even with him reclining, she could tell that he was a powerful man, and the way he spoke made her realize the strength of his commanding presence.

She had heard that Ulfric was capable of Shouting, like those group of monks that lived in seclusion at the so-called Throat of the World. If there was any doubt Nadiya had about that, she couldn't deny it now. Even with him talking at an even volume, she felt a kind of ripple that permeated the air whenever he spoke up. It was a very subtle effect, and if it weren't for her vampiric senses, she wouldn't have been able to tell that something was amiss. She had never personally met anyone that could Shout, but from what she's read, even those who take years to master the Voice, the philosophy that those who Shout follow, could not control it very well afterward learning it. Very few were able to not only Shout but speak at a normal volume. Ulfric didn't control his Voice well enough for it to slip past Nadiya, but he was close. Despite this, she became wary of him, and she had a thought that she may have to face him someday. This wasn't outside the realm of possibility if all goes according to her plan.

The guard motioned for the three to follow him to Brunwulf, and the three obeyed. As they got closer, they could tell that the debate was winding down. They stood behind the war hero and politely waited for them to finish.

"And that's only a few of the new complaints that I've heard from the Dark Elves Ulfric. And don't get me restarted on how the Argonians' living conditions are. Look, I know times are tough, but the Elves and the Argonians live within your city. You should take better care of them like any righteous and caring leader."

"I am taking care of them. Was my generosity in letting them live within the city not enough? After all, our fight for freedom is the most important thing for us and any true Nord. I could have just turned them away and let them rot, but no. It is because of my generosity that they live here. As for our fellow Nords here, I can only say so much to calm them down."

"But you only act when there's a riot started by our fellow Nords; otherwise, you neglect them. If you act only when the fire starts, not when the embers are beginning to heat up, then you run the risk of letting it all go out of control. And if that happens, well, who knows what'll happen to Windhelm and your Stormcloaks. I know your war takes priority, but it should not be at the cost of the people. There's a reason you have officers and generals to help you fight. Let them have greater say in your war and put your own focus on this city and the others under your control for a change. It's been a long time since you've paid serious attention to the people living in your city. Must I remind you of the obligations your father gave you?"

"You're a veteran of the war Brunwulf, just as I am. When a threat to your existence looms on the horizon, you focus on that, not on anything else. If I spend too much time on thinking about the Elves and how nice their houses are, then the Empire will overrun us all!"

"You mistake the Empire for the Dominion. There're not the same thing."

"Yes they are. Once they bent their knees to the yellow bastards, they may as well have taken their colors as well."

"Ulfric, you damned fool. Oh, my companions are here. Are you ladies finished with your business?"

"Yes, we are. We were just waiting for you," said Kamilia.

"I see. Well Ulfric, I will see you later. I'm done arguing today."

"So soon? Very well. Before you leave, may I ask who your companions are? They're certainly not from here."

"Ah, they're travelers from outside the province, heading to the College. They were just talking to Wuunferth."

"Hmmm." At this, he turned his attention to the three. "And your names are?"

"My name is Maria, this is Alanni and Nora. We came to the province to check out the College," said Nadiya.

"Ah, so you're the Maria that was in that fight earlier. I applaud your fighting skills. Don't be worried, they had it coming to them anyways, they're troublemakers.

"I am Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm, leader of the Stormcloaks, the warriors fighting for a free Skyrim, and the true High King of Skyrim. Other than Dark Elves and some Argonians, not many other races live this far north. Bretons tend to be in the Reach or in Haafingar, and Imperials are often in hostile territory, in case you three were wondering. Do not worry, I am not going to lock you away, I could tell if you wanted to strike me down.

"And you're all heading to the College you say? Interesting. Not a lot of people head that way anymore save for traders and those that can use magic. It's a dangerous route, even before the Collapse. You three seem to be quite hardy though, so barring any Imperials or worse you all should get there safely."

"Oh, we can take care of ourselves just fine," piped up Milana. "Unless you guys have anything else to say, shall we move on?"

"Actually I was wondering if I can ask you a couple of things Jarl Ulfric. Or can I just call you Ulfric?" asked Nadiya.

"I don't see why not. And I have some time for your questions."

"Thanks. So why exactly are you rebelling? What made you turn your back on the Empire, especially in times like these?"

At this, Ulfric narrowed his eyes ever so slightly at the unassuming Breton girl, curious about what this foreigner was getting at. Brunwulf crossed his arms, anticipating another debate coming up, while the twins drew a quick breath, hoping that the rebel leader wouldn't be suspicious. Ulfric took a moment to collect his thoughts, and then started slowly and in a low voice.

"It's interesting that many people still seek my motives for doing the things I've done in the past few years. Is it not apparent that my actions are in response to the troubled times we all face? What you are asking me is a question that I have become very familiar with over the past year. You know, I often wonder myself if it's the right thing to do, to rebel against the Empire that I had fought so fiercely for, spilled blood for, and nearly died for. After all, out in the field many of my former comrades are out there on both sides, fighting one another. And I wonder oftentimes if in the end it's all worth it. There hasn't been an independent Skyrim since the time of General Talos himself, and it'll be a great task to lead the people once we're free from the Empire and we begin to prepare for the Dominion. It's been less than a year since our fight for Skyrim's independence, and we're blessed that Tullius can only have so many Legionnaires; otherwise, we'd be in for a much bigger fight.

"I don't know of you or your allegiance, but from the sounds of things you don't seem to understand current events in Skyrim well enough. Well let me ask you this: what would you do if everything you've lived for was taken from you and set in flames? What if you're told that everything you believed in was now considered heresy, and you'd be arrested for even hinting that you worship a particular god? What if you were denied kingship over a land that you rightfully won the right to rule over? And what if the Empire that you fought so fiercely to protect now turns its back on the promises it made, and has an alliance in all but name with an entity that seeks to destroy Man? These are just a few of the grievances I have against a dying and corrupt Empire.

"The Imperials want me dead for rightfully asserting my claim over the kingship of Skyrim and for refusing to renounce Talos, the god-defender of Mankind. What the Dominion did to all of us was unforgivable, but what the Empire did was traitorous. No righteous man would have bowed down to the Elves after sweeping their forces from the continent. The Empire should have told the Elves to rot in Oblivion after such a victory over them and continued the fight. But no, Titus decided it would be best to sign a treaty with them, the White-Gold Concordat nearly unchanged at that! The second his pen left the paper, I knew the Empire was no more. I couldn't openly worship Talos without catching the attention of the damned Thalmor. Ironic that the god who founded the Empire is now banned from worship by his own people.

"But what the last straw was the denial of my kingship. I, in Nord tradition, challenged High King Torygg to single combat for the throne of Skyrim, and I won. But the Imperials in their ignorance begged to differ, and so they tried to arrest me. Typical Imperials, ignorant to Nord traditions. I escaped, and now here I am fighting for my rightful throne, for a free Skyrim, and the right to worship my gods the way I please. One day, I or my successors will take the fight to the cursed Isles, and perhaps to the Imperial City if need be. The Stormcloaks will not back down, not as long as I am breathing and I have a sword in my hand. Skyrim was where Man first stepped foot onto Tamriel and started a legacy that resonates deeply within all Men to this day. Now, the other peoples and provinces look down on us and spit on the very name of Talos. When I become High King, I will make Skyrim great again and restore the legacy of Talos. That is why I fight Maria, and until the Dominion is destroyed and the Empire either defeated or under a new leader, there is no reason for me or the Nord people to rest anytime soon."

Nadiya held a straight face during Ulfric's tirade, but on the inside she was shocked at his fevor. Here was a man who had his own issues with the Thalmor, and like herself sought a way to fight them. That she could understand. She herself thought at times of simply going on a rampage and killing anything that gave a hint of Thalmor affiliation. But she had learned to control her emotions even in the most trying of times, thanks to Inigo's valuable lessons. She never did get to thank him, and Nadiya wondered if he was able to get away during the chaos when they were both trapped in the City.

But this Ulfric took the extreme route. Raising up a rebel army to war against the Empire, proclaiming his outspoken worship for Talos for all to see, vengeful that he wasn't able to claim his precious throne; madness, all of it. Nadiya knew when not to argue, especially against someone so convinced in his cause, and decided not to raise her voice against the traitor. She was very much itching to make her case for the Empire, but she knew better considering she was in the center for the rebellion.

If she were a Nord, and if there were any doubt within her about her allegiance, joining the rebels would be a tempting decision thanks to Ulfric's rather persuasive and powerful rhetoric. But she owed her life to the Empire, and despite its glaring flaws she considered it to be a much better alternative than these rebels. Even if she wanted to join up, she didn't think she'd fit in very well; every single Stormcloak she had seen and passed by was Nordic, which made sense since the Stormcloak cause is inherently Nordic by nature.

"Wow, you make a great case Ulfric. You certainly aren't lacking in enthusiasm that's for sure. Another question before we take off, a lighter one. Since we're new to the province, is there anything vital we need to know? Weather, traditions, danger?"

"Since Skyrim is not in the safest conditions right now, I'd say it'd be best to travel in a group. Like I said, you three seem to be able to fend for yourselves well enough. You especially Maria, from what I heard about that scuffle earlier."

"Thanks, it was all just a big kerfuffle."

"I understand. You all seem to have adequate clothing, a necessity especially this far north. Traditions, I'm sure the College can teach you well enough in that regard, but all you need to know since you're all foreigners is to not get into too many scuffles, we Nords are a stubborn bunch. I already told you about the dangers of the Imperials, bandits are somewhat of a larger issue nowadays, depending on where you're from exactly the local beasts can prove to be deadly, and of course the Thalmor are everywhere. Unfortunately, the Thalmor are not the main threat here, rather the Imperials are; if you worship the Nine then be wary of who you talk to in your travels."

"Alright then, that should be all. Thank you for your time Ulfric. Perhaps one day we'll meet again."

"Somehow I believe that. Very well, enjoy your time in Windhelm and have a safe journey to the College. Talos guide you," concluded Ulfric.

After saying their parting words, the three followed Brunwulf and their escort to the great doors, and headed outside once the guards let them through. Their escort parted with them at the door and they walked a bit further until they all stood just outside the gateway to the palace, and here Brunwulf spoke to them.

"Well my friends, it's been an interesting time meeting all of you. I need to get back to my work, but whenever you all are in Windhelm, feel free to come find me. I'd be happy to have your company."

"Thank for showing us around Brunwulf. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning, so if you're willing to have breakfast we could go to Candlehearth Hall once again," replied Nadiya.

"That sounds like a good way to start tomorrow, I'll make sure to be there early. Alright, I'll see you all in the morning then!" Brunwulf then shook hands with the three and went on his way. Conversly, the three started to walk to the market, eager to see what the midday markets had in store. After a few minutes, they decided to save some time and take a side route, and as they walked through a narrow alleyway all three came upon a gristly sight.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this work, the Elder Scrolls series belongs to Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks

In what appeared to be a graveyard was a small crowd with a couple of guards trying to shoo people away from the scene. The three couldn't tell exactly what the object of the crowd's attention was, although the smell of blood and traces of it on the ground gave the three morbid thoughts. Great, another commotion thought Nadiya. And a murder this time it seems, I wonder what's going on this time? The three looked at each other, and with an unspoken agreement started to approach the crowd with Kamilia taking the initiative.

Upon reaching the crowd, the three pushed their way through until they found the bloody corpse of a young woman lying on a grave, with what appeared to be many cuts across the body. Kamilia turned to a guard trying to disperse the crowd and ask, "Pardon me, earlier my sister and I noticed the scene here but just passed by; could you tell us what happened here?"

"Well, this morning Susanna was found dead here. Poor girl, served me drinks at Candlehearth not long ago. Helgird was unable to come right away due to other duties, so we've been stuck making sure that the body isn't disturbed. She'll be here very soon though, so don't be worried," replied the guard.

"Huh. You know, when my sister and I were at the market earlier we saw a flier that was warning of the 'Butcher.' Does this have anything to do with that killer?"

"In all likelihood yes. However, with the war going on we've little guards to commit to catching this guy. Already there have been a couple of murders before Susanna, and with each one people grow more uneasy."

"Really? Sounds like you need some help."

"Woah what?" interjected Milana, turning around to look at her sister. "You want to chase after murderers be my guest, but I definitely don't want to track some creep down and risk my life."

"We don't need to go after the killer directly, all we need to do is point the guards in the right direction. Besides, we're leaving tomorrow, why not help people out a little?"

"Hmmm, why not. Might as well keep occupied while we're here. Not like I have much else to do," chimed in Nadiya. "Milana, what about you?"

"I'll help out later, how about that? I want to head back to the market and check out a few things. Let's say we meet at Candlehearth in a few hours, maybe four in the afternoon?"

"Sure, Nad and I will be checking out what's going on. See you later!"

Milana then continued onwards to the markets, while Nadiya and Kamilia turned to look at the amused guard they were talking to. "Huh, that's something you don't see every day. Strangers willing to help find mysterious killers. What your angle girls?"

"Other than helping to bring a murderer to justice? Reward in the form of gold, but justice is the focus here," pitched in Kamilia.

"Huh. At least you're honest about the gold. Well then, if you really want to help go see Jorleif in the palace, he'll point the way for you. We already questioned the crowd here, they've not been of much help. What is known is that the Butcher is likely male since the reports we've gotten described the killer that way. That's all we can say with certainty, and even then we don't know that for sure."

"Alright, we'll go see this Jorleif guy then. We'll see what we can do."

"We'll be here if there's any developments. Oh, and thank you for volunteering to help. People are too nervous to take action nowadays," finished the guard.

"Hey, a killer on the loose is not something that people should be facing. See you later."

With this exchange concluded, Nadiya and Kamilia turned around to head back to the palace and see what Jorleif might want them to do. Meanwhile, Milana was browsing through a vegetable stand when she noticed the Altmer woman that she bartered with earlier in the day. Until she heard Ulfric's argument with Brunwulf, she hadn't given any thought to the fact that she and the other Altmer in the potion shop were the only non-Nord merchants in the market. Now curious, she finished up her vegetable shopping and walked over to the Altmer woman's stand, the proprietor of which was busy with a couple of customers. Once that business was concluded, Milana walked forward and greeted her. "Hello again, Niranye was it?"

"Why yes. You were here earlier, correct?"

"I was. I'm just passing by doing a little more shopping. I was actually curious; would it trouble you if I asked some questions?"

"Not at all, unless you're incriminating me for something I didn't do. In which case, things will get ugly."

"Nothing like that. I was wondering, with you and the other Altmer man in that potion shop, is it's difficult for non-Nords to set up shop here?"

"Not necessarily, no. There was quite a bit of tension when I first set up shop not too long ago. But you do have to know the right sort of people though, I'll give you that. This isn't a city where you can open a business tomorrow even with the right credentials if you're not a Nord. So you do have to accept the fact that you can't raise your voice too high, or else you'll be scrutinized a lot. The Dark Elves are too proud to listen otherwise, which is why they still live in that hovel called the Grey Quarter. As for the Argonians, well theirs is a special case. Many of the Nords here are already anxious about Mer, and beast-races just make them downright repulse them."

"I can't disagree with the pride of the Dunmer, that's for sure. So, you basically paid the right people off?"

"What? Now that's a strange conclusion for you to come to. I said you need to know the right people, nothing more. I can assure you that I have not done anything so criminal."

"But you're an Altmer, a race that isn't looked upon too kindly especially in Skyrim from what I've heard. You must have had at least some sway with important people."

At this, Niranye widened her eyes briefly, then furrowed them at Milana. For a moment, the atmosphere was quite tense, and Milana began to think that perhaps she had pressed too much in her quest for knowledge. After a few more seconds, Niranye relaxed and said to Milana, "You are a smart one, I'll give you that. I did have to buy my way into this city, and in return my… associates ensured that I wouldn't come to harm for the first couple of weeks. And thanks to my amiable nature, I managed to win over many new customers. I am certainly not telling you who my associates are, in case you were wondering."

"I respect your privacy. I just wanted to know how you're seemingly successful, given the rebellion and all."

"I understand. Despite my success, everyday I'm guaranteed to encounter some bigotry, minor as they can be. Was there anything else you needed to know, or did you plan on browsing the other items I have here?"

"I'll look around a bit more, thank you," concluded Milana. With that, she began to browse the other goods in the store while Niranye turned to help out a waiting customer. As Milana looked around, she began to wonder. Niranye had seemed rather dodgy in their exchange, which was understandable considering her situation, but there was certainly more to the Altmer than what meets the eye. Whatever the case may be, Milana didn't think she would press Niranye with such questions again, that is if she ever sees her again. Once in Winterhold, who knows how long she, her sister, and Nadiya would be staying there.

Between her twin, Nadiya, and herself, Milana was the most studious and well-read of them. She had spent a great deal of her time in Cyrodiil studying beyond what was taught in the classroom, and often took Nadiya or her sister out to practice magic if multiple people were needed for a particular ritual, spell, or the like. Because of this, she was the most adaptable and well-versed mage among the three of them, although the other two were not far behind. In terms of raw power Nadiya had her beat, and Kamilia spent much time honing subtlety, but otherwise Milana was the most well-rounded of them all.

To say that she was excited to journey to the College was describing her feelings lightly. Thanks to the War, she hadn't a chance to complete her studies at the College of Whispers, and she left a mere apprentice, a highly capable one at that though. Once she arrives, she reasoned she'd be the one spending the most time practicing magic, while Nadiya would likely be planning things out and exploring, and Kamilia would probably be sneaking around as usual. Milana would be most at home in the College.

Milana spent some more time browsing Niranye's goods before moving on. She looked around to see where to head to next until she saw the potion shop. She then remembered that there were a couple of ingredients that she and her sister were looking for to produce some strong health potions, and so she headed there, hoping that the shop had restocked within the past few hours since she last visited.

Meanwhile, Nadiya and Kamilia had visited the steward to Jarl Ulfric, Jorleif, and after letting him know of the now-vacant bandit den they were held in, sparing the details, they were told by him to speak with the Priestess of Arkay tending to the body, Helgird. She proved to be of little help though, so they went back to speak to the guard that they spoke to earlier. He didn't have any updates, but he did tell them that there seemed to be some blood leading away from the scene, though he couldn't keep on the trail since the snow had covered it up. The two decided to follow the scent of the blood, which was only possible thanks to their vampiric senses, and after some time the trail ended at an abandoned house at the end of a quiet neighborhood. They tried to open the door only to find that it was locked very sturdily. Nadiya was considering whether to head back and get the guards to unlock the doors or to ask the neighbors if they had keys when Kamilia spoke up.

"Wait, you're thinking of asking around for a key? Why don't you just lockpick the door?"

"Because I can't pick it. I've picked many locks before, but this one seems to be beyond me. I haven't practiced for a long while. Besides, we look suspicious with our hoods on."

"Why don't I take a crack at it?"

"Suit yourself. This is definitely one of the tougher locks I've seen. Besides, we only have a few lockpicks, and I'd rather not break them so soon."

"Don't worry, I think I can do it."

With this, Kamilia took out a lockpick and went about her work, only for the pick to snap within twenty seconds. Nadiya sighed and said, "See? Let's go, it'll look less suspicious if we ask for a key."

"Hang on, one more time," responded the twin. She then pulled out one of the last lockpicks and went right to work again. For a couple of minutes, she fumbled about here and there while Nadiya watched with amusement, thinking that if she couldn't do it, then neither could Kamilia. She raised her eyebrows in surprise when Kamilia managed to pick it successfully and the twin said to her with a grin, "See? Told you I could do it."

"Huh, well what do you know? Since when have you been the better thief?"

"Hey, you're the one that taught me. I've just been practicing, that's all."

"'Practicing,' huh? The only way I could see you practicing is when you're doing something rather nefarious."

"Whatever. We're already in, shall we proceed or are you going to stand there, astounded by my masterful skills?"

"Hah-hah. Let's go, we've a murderer to catch."

With that little exchange concluded, the two headed inside to find the place deserted with only a couple pieces of furniture lying about here and there. Nadiya went to check the second floor while Kamilia investigated the ground floor. After some time, Nadiya came back downstairs with no success, and almost immediately caught the scent of blood. She looked around and saw an open cabinet with light coming out of it. Curious, she walked up to it and peered into the cabinet to see Kamilia inside a secret room with many body parts lying about, the twin engrossed in a small book.

The amount of blood on the floor made Nadiya blink in disbelief. This was a sight that she had seen only a few times, and those times involved the War. Even when she was her amongst her coven prior to their sleep, there was scarcely any spilled blood, owing to the master vampire's policy of maintaining a "civilized" sanctuary, as opposed to the often ill-kempt vampire lairs hidden away in the wilds. Nadiya was no stranger to the latter and similar kinds of redoubts since she was raised in a thieves' guild, but ever since her patronage was ensured by the arch-wizard that she almost successfully robbed, she had grown to have a strong distaste for the such dirty hovels. However, she wasn't above getting filthy if the situation called for it. After all, it is downright impossible to completely shed the part of her life when she was a thief, and in any case the skills she learned then still prove useful.

Every now her criminal instinct surfaces here and there, and without it Nadiya wouldn't have noticed a peculiar bulge in Kamilia's pocket that wasn't there before. "Well, all this blood and gore lying about is a lot more interesting than what I found upstairs, which was nothing. So, what's does the book say? And what sort of valuables have you managed to find?"

Kamilia looked up and said, "Oh, this journal talks about all of the blood and body parts lying around here. And why would you think I've found something valuable?"

"That bulge in your pocket. I'll bet it's some necklace you found among all the blood and guts."

"I'm still surprised how easily you can tell when someone has something nice on them, and what it might be. Well, you are half-right. I found the necklace in those little shelves just next to the cabinet you walked through. Here, let me show you."

At this Kamilia pulled out a strange amulet, and as she held it out Nadiya felt it radiate oddly. She instantly knew it was magical, but it seemed… ominous. As she took it into her hand, she could tell that the power within was ancient, and likely forged using forgotten and malevolent rituals. As she inspected it, she took note of the prominent jade skull emblazoned front and center, and the thought occurred to Nadiya that it might be a daedric artifact. The quickest way to find out would be to seek out one well-versed in arcane lore, who can evaluate the necklace. But for now, she needed to focus on the task at hand.

"Interesting. Maybe Wuunferth would know something about this, he seems knowledgeable enough," Nadiya said after inspecting the necklace. She gave it back to Kamilia and continued, "Here, you can hold onto it. Do you know who the author of that journal is?"

"Sadly the author didn't write his name down. Other than his notes on stalking Susanna, probably the corpse we saw, his other victims, and some thoughts on the ritual the killer wants to undertake, as well as the body parts, everything seems to be pretty vague."

"Great, a dead end. Should we go see Jorleif again?"

"Yeah. But look at this, this Viola seems to be hunting the killer as well. Maybe we should see her first, and show her the journals to get another lead."

"Hmmm. I see your point, but let's go to Jorleif first. After all, he's the one in charge of the investigation, he may have more to go on. Was there anything else you found here, or are you ready to head out?"

"Believe me, I checked everything twice. Nothing else but what you see. Oh, and there were a few jars filled with blood over there, we should definitely take them."

"Nice. Here, let's put them in that box, it looks clean enough that people won't think it's suspicious."

"Alright then. Watch your step, it's slipperier than it looks."

Satisfied with their findings, the pair grabbed the jars, put them into the wooden box, and made their way out the secret room, taking care not to slip. Once outside the room, they shut the cabinet, quickly cleaned their boots off, drank some blood to quench their growing thirst, and then Nadiya took the box while Kamilia held the journals as they exited the house.

By this time, it was close to four in the afternoon, and Kamilia suggested that they should head to the Hall, to drop off the box and to meet with her sister. As they walked into the rowdy Hall, they headed upstairs and saw Milana sitting at a table talking to a well-dressed man. There were several large books sitting atop the table, a few pieces of parchment filled with words right in front of the man, and a quill sitting within a vial filled with ink. As the two walked up to the sitting pair, they came to hear snippets of the conversation.

"…and so, for the past couple of weeks I've yet to step outside the city walls. Undoubtedly I will head back out in time, but the thought of those Falmer still keep me up at night. For now, I will continue on my latest work, 'Olaf and the Dragon.' Besides, all of my traveling has kept me from progressing far in my book."

"How frightening! I've heard of the Falmer before, in this old bestiary I had when I was younger, but I didn't imagine a race of such monsters existed! I suppose I shouldn't be surprised considering there's a lot of weird things in Tamriel, but that doesn't mean I'm not wary of such things. Are they a common sight in Skyrim?"

"Thankfully no, they tend to dwell underground, so unless you go into remote caves you won't be seeing any of those things. The caravan and I being attacked in the storm was a major exception. I've heard stories of the Falmer attacking isolated villages and outposts in the dead of night, but I've not verified any of them."

"Fascinating. Oh, my sister and friend is here. Let me introduce you all," said Milana as noticed the two aforementioned people standing by patiently. She motioned her arm towards them and said to the man, "Adonato, this is Alanni my sister, and Maria my good friend. And girls, this is Adonato Leotelli, a bard from the Bard's College in Solitude."

"Nice to meet you Don. May I call you that?" asked Kamilia as she went to shake his hand.

"Um, sure. Never really had a nickname before, so I suppose I don't mind," responded Adonato as they shook hands. He then turned to Nadiya, held his hand out and asked, "And you are Maria, correct? The same one that was in the fight this morning?"

"I am. Wasn't my intention to get into a scuffle in a new city, but sometimes you can't help yourself. Anyways, pleasure to meet you," she said as they shook. "I overheard you've been staying in Windhelm for some time now?"

"You heard correctly. I was traveling with a Khajiit caravan when a storm forced to halt during the night. Long story short, we were attacked by a small group of Falmer, and we lost a member of the caravan to them. Ever since our arrival in Windhelm I've been staying in this city, living in this lively Hall, and I'll do so until I feel like I'm able to venture out again. I've to catch up on continuing my tale on Olaf and the Dragon in any case, I've been letting the pages dry for too long."

"Wow. I've never heard of these 'Falmer' before, are they some kind of elf?"

"In a way yes. Legend has it that they are the corrupted descendants of the Snow Elves, the original inhabitants of Skyrim. After they were defeated by the ancient Nords they made a deal with the Dwemer: they would consume a toxic fungus that took their sight in exchange for a place to stay. The Dwemer likely took their eyesight due to distrust the dwarves had for their brethren. Over time, the Snow Elves became enslaved to the Dwemer and they turned into the feral Falmer. Eventually they would rise up and rebel against their masters, up until the disappearance of the Dwemer. Now, the Falmer take to occasionally raiding the surface, but only in isolated cases. Otherwise, they seem to keep mostly underground."

"Gods, what monsters. Have you been researching them?"

"No. What I told you was from a study by Ursa Uthrax, who spent years studying those beasts. I myself am intrigued by the Falmer, but I am surely not the kind of person to be venturing down into the deep. I am no warrior."

"I see. Before I forget, Nora, what do you plan to do for the rest of the day? Kam and I are still working on that case, so we'll be busy for some time," asked Nadiya.

"I already rented a room out, so I think I'll stay in the Hall for a while unless something else comes up. Maybe explore the city a bit, but other than that, that's all."

"Alright then. Alanni, I'm going to drop the box off at the carriage and I'll meet you at the Palace. Oh, and here Nora, I got you a drink at the market. So Alanni, sounds good?"

"Sure. If you don't see me at the Palace I'll probably be out hunting the murderer."

"If you do, don't get yourself hurt. Alright then, I'll see you two later, and Adonato, once again pleasure to meet you. I'll probably run into you again anyhow."

"Likewise. You two take care then."

With all that said, Nadiya and Kamilia went their separate ways while Milana continued to sit at the table and chat with Adonato. Nadiya walked outside the Hall and went towards the city gates. Once outside, she walked at a steady pace across the bridge, taking in the calm weather and the light crowd heading in and out of the city.

What a day, she thought. Getting into a fight, meeting a rebel leader, and now investigating a killer stalking the city at night. Already the twins and I are making our mark upon Skyrim. And we've only been to one city. Who knows what'll happen as time goes on.

As Nadiya walked, she noticed how people coming in and out of the city seemed generally despondent. More than a few were dirty presumably from traveling, and there were numerous Stormcloaks marching about. Tough times in Skyrim, thought Nadiya. To resort to rebellion is something I didn't think the Nords of all races would resort to, especially in times like this when unity is key to success.

After some minutes, she reached the other end of the bridge and walked over to her carriage, still looking to be intact. She opened one of the doors and carefully placed the box among the now-meager blood supply. Nadiya was thankful that they managed to acquire a good amount of blood without having to resort to paralyzing unsuspecting victims and drawing blood from them. Not that she and the twins were strangers to this sort of work, but those actions could be difficult to pull off in cities. One never knows if a target is able to resist a paralysis spell, and if they did and shouted for help, things could get messy. Nadiya and the twins were well-versed in this sort of work, but they preferred to prey outside city walls for sake of ease.

She shuffled around the supplies for a bit until she was satisfied, and then after chatting with the stable keeper about their days, she started to head back across the bridge. As she did so, she noticed the ocean to the north, and the Breton decided to pause and look out to the horizon and watch the skies turn from afternoon to evening. Nadiya walked up to the railing and leaned against it, content with spending a little time alone.

This was the first time she was able to relax and enjoy the fading day. The skies were certainly beautiful over Skyrim, and in the far distance she could make out one of the famous auroras coming to life. It'd be some time before they would be in full view, but to see even a glimpse of them was enough to make Nadiya want to stay and see them in their full glory.

As she looked at the fading skies over the Sea of Ghosts, she thought to herself once again about the future. She still couldn't believe that she and the twins spent twenty years in those coffins. All that time spent sleeping their troubles away, all while Tamriel was recovering from the worst of the Great War. What went wrong during their shipment? Nadiya wanted to find out one day, but that day is likely not anytime soon.

There were other things that she wanted to figure out besides the shipment, concerning her existential self and how she came to be in this odd world. Like who her parents were, and why they abandoned her when she was an infant. At least that's what Inigo had told her. Nadiya had plenty of reasons to trust the old thief; he was essentially a father figure to her. He had taught her everything he knew when it came to surviving on her own, which came in handy on many occasions then and now. But still, she couldn't shake the feeling that he might have hid secrets from her, owing to his hesitation whenever she would press him for details on the past. The only thing she was certain of was that at least one of her parents were of Breton heritage, that much was clear. Anything else, she had no idea where to even start.

If they did abandon her, why? Was she an unwanted child? She certainly felt that way. If that were the truth, then she would likely punch her parents were she to ever meet them. That, and she have a very long and insightful talk with them. At least that's what she thinks she wanted. Whatever the reason, she'd be very demanding and would seek out as many answers as she possibly could. However, taking into account not only the amount of time that has passed since her birth and the Sleep, but also the Great War and the fact that she now resides in Skyrim made Nadiya feel that meeting her parents would likely remain a dream.

And if they were alive, would they even want to meet her? Inigo had no idea what her parents were like, only that they were likely well-off due to the card that was left in her basket when Inigo found her. "To the man in the ninth hovel, take good care of her," said the card, which was written in a very peculiar and formal script. Nadiya always kept that card on her person in a magically-sealed envelope, in hopes that one day she would be able to track that particular script down.

As the skies continued to darken and the aurora began to show a stronger display, she kept on thinking. She wondered if what she was planning in regards to the Thalmor would be worth it in the end. Especially since the twins were involved in the plan. Nadiya thought of the two as her own blood sisters, and ever since she had first met them when they caught her attempting to rob the arch-wizard, the three were almost inseparable. Of course the first couple of weeks they knew each other the wizard had forced the twins to watch over Nadiya in case she did anything suspicious, but eventually the twins became genuine, best friends with the now-former thief. She couldn't think of better people to have her back in an unpredictable land, and she'd do anything to make sure that they remained safe. But if they were to take the fight to the Thalmor, then safety is not something that they can count on having with regularity.

The Thalmor and the Dominion were a blight on the face of Nirn, and Nadiya saw nothing more fit for them than annihilation. Such an event would be years away though, so for the moment the most she and the twins could do is engage in isolated attacks on small Thalmor groups, make them fearful of patrolling the land for signs of Talos worshippers. From there, Nadiya can only speculate for now. There are a lot of factors into fighting the Thalmor, and she doesn't even know the land well. Going to the College is the best course of action, as they all agreed upon. To undertake such a venture against the Thalmor immediately would likely get the three of them into hot water very quickly.

They could always just leave Skyrim and head back to Cyrodiil, see if they could regroup with old friends and allies. But the roads between Skyrim and Cyrodiil are often near danger zones if current events taught them anything, and explaining to anyone they knew the situation they landed in when they woke up would open up a whole host of questions. And from what she understood, Skyrim is in need of more help than Cyrodiil. So no, returning to the home province is not something that needs to be down for now, at least for Nadiya. Kamilia and Milana seem to be adjusting well to the province, so at least she didn't have to worry about them separating.

"Hey miss, it's getting to be late out. I suggest you head into the city for the night, unless you'd rather risk the wolves or worse out in the cold," said a quietly approaching guard, startling a distant Nadiya. She collected herself, then gave the guard a withering look. "Alright, alright. I was just enjoying the evening here, and you had to interrupt it."

"Skyrim isn't exactly the safest province you know. There's a lot of things out there that can make you an easy meal. So once again, I suggest you get a move-on."

Nadiya nodded silently and turned to walk back. She looked up as she did so to see the aurora in full display, dancing across the night sky. It was certainly an incredible sight, and Nadiya walked a little slower to appreciate its splendor. Maybe Skyrim is a nice place to stay after all, she thought. I still have to visit the other major cities in the province, but I can certainly appreciate the night skies here.

As Nadiya walked along, she took note of the increased amount of guards that were patrolling the bridge and the walls. Huh, looks like the rebels are really wary of an Imperial attack, she thought. Or maybe something worse. Then again, I can't really imagine anything worse to these rebels than some well-trained Legionnaires. She walked through the gates without difficulty, and was about to head to the Palace to see if she could catch up on Kamilia when she heard some shouting, as well as the sound of clanking steel. Now alert, she rushed over to the source of the commotion, which was coming from the markets that Milana had been to earlier. As she got closer, she saw a crowd gathering in the middle of the market, as well as some guards trying to push into the crowd. Great, another showdown, Nadiya thought. Hopefully it'll be resolved by the time I show up.

As she pushed through the crowd towards the center, the sounds of a fierce struggle grew louder. After a couple of shoves and stepping on feet, she finally managed to break through the growing crowd to see a man stumble backwards while clenching his side, utter a death cry, and then collapse, his body twitching as it lay there. Nadiya looked towards the assailant and to her astonishment saw a scruffy-looking Kamilia with a drawn dagger coated with what she assumed to be a kind of poison, holding back a trembling Altmer woman whose arms were marked with several cuts, a couple of them appearing to be deep.

Kamilia scanned the crowd, and upon seeing Nadiya she smirked and said with satisfaction, "There you are! Looks like Windhelm doesn't have to worry about any more blood on the ice."

At once Nadiya rushed over with worry and asked, "Gods Kam! What happened?"

Kamilia paused for a moment to catch her breath and then replied, "I found the murderer after some hunting around the city, about to kill this woman just moments ago. He got a few slices at her before I got the best of him." She then turned to the Altmer woman and asked, "How bad did he cut you?"

The Altmer woman was still trembling slightly when she responded, "Not as bad as it could have been. If you didn't shout, he might have actually killed me! To think that Calixto was the 'Butcher' all along! I always knew he was a little odd, but I never imagined him responsible for the murders around the city!"

By this point, the guards managed to push through the crowd. They looked at the now-deceased Calixto, then at Kamilia and the Altmer woman. Shaking his head, one of the guards stepped forward and began his questions.

"Two major incidents in a single day, and another death. A little more action than usual, I guess." The guard turned to Nadiya and scrutinized her for a moment. "Wait a moment, weren't you involved in that fight this morning, between you and Rolff and Angrenor?"

"Yeah, but this time I had nothing to do with this particular altercation." Nadiya looked at the nearby corpse and added, "And for that matter, that man's death."

"Right. Alright now, listen up guardsmen! You two take the body to Helgird, while the rest of you save for Jor question the crowd. I want to know what exactly happened here." As he was speaking, Nadiya noticed Kamilia nimbly dart over to the corpse and snatch something from his neck. As she did so, the head guard took notice and immediately put his hand on his sword's hilt. "Hey! What is that you are taking?"

"Wuunferth wanted to see this amulet. He was the one who helped me catch the killer in the first place."

"Is that so? He did take an interest in the Butcher while the case was ongoing. Well then, let's go visit him and see what he has to say."

The head guard motioned over for a nearby guard to accompany him and Kamilia, while the Altmer woman went with another guard to seek out a healer. Nadiya tagged along with Kamilia to figure out what happened between her leaving the twin in Candlehearth and finding the twin standing over a man she killed. Kamilia updated her by telling that she went to go see Viola for information, then Calixto, then Wuunferth, and then she confronted Calixto as he was about to backstab the Altmer woman in the market. After some time walking, the four opened the door to Wuunferth's room to see him working on a couple of enchantments.

As Kamilia talked with Wuunferth and the head guard, Nadiya listened to Kamilia's tale with interest. As the talks went on, Nadiya came to realize that this Calixto was responsible for the murders in Windhelm, as well as other travelers within the Hold, in hopes of gathering enough body parts to reconstruct and resurrect his dead sister. Nadiya shuddered with disgust. She has enough knowledge about necromancy to be able to identify many of the various practices, techniques, and rituals within this often-frowned upon art of magic. Hell, she even practices it at times, since it is one of the most potent forms of magic if applied correctly. However, she was never a fan of the more damning rituals such as what Calixto attempted, since nearly every example of that and similar rituals have ended poorly from what Nadiya's seen and heard about. Not to mention the morality of this ritual was highly questionable.

As the others continued their discussion, it was also revealed that the mysterious amulet that was found first in the abandoned house and then on Calixto's person was the legendary Necromancer's Amulet. How it came to his possession was itself a mystery, but Wuunferth was willing to let that secret die with Calixto. After more talk, the guards cleared Kamilia of any sort of wrongdoing, and the head guard asked the two to report to Jorleif for their news and reward. Nadiya and Kamilia offered the Amulet to the aged wizard, but he declined and told them to keep it, believing it would be more useful in their hands. "Also, think of it as a kind of reward. Now, just remember to not let the power of the Amulet get to your head," added Wuunferth before the four left him alone to his work.

Upon reaching the steward, he thanked the two for solving the case and rewarded them with gold, amounting to be 2500 pieces. Before the two departed, he also said that if they were willing they could purchase a house within the city walls, as they have proven themselves to be upstanding citizens. Nadiya respectfully declined, but did keep in mind the offer if the need were to ever come up.

After leaving the Palace and parting with the two guards, the two started to walk back to Candlehearth to relax, as their day had been quite busy. For a while they walked in silence as snowflakes fell slowly from the sky. As they reached the Hall, Nadiya suddenly spoke up and asked, "Kamilia, I thought you had the Amulet when we split up? Why did Calixto have it when I met up with you again?"

"Oh, when I went to see him at his house and museum I sold it to him after questioning him and showing him it if he could figure out what it is."

"…what? Why?"

"He offered 500 gold. And plus, I had a hunch he was the killer after seeing him, he was acting pretty weird when I questioned him. So I reasoned that I'd meet him again in direr circumstances, and when I did I could just take it from him then."

"But what if he used the Amulet to, I don't know, summon a Dremora to defend himself? What if he did something equally as drastic?"

"He's an older guy, it wouldn't have been hard to take him out."

"Still though, you never know what someone could be capable of doing. Kam, just make sure that you think things through. I don't want to have you get injured or worse because you did something impulsively, and for a little extra gold of all things!"

"Gods Nad, you worry too much. Don't, I can take care of myself."

With that all said and done, the two headed inside and met up with Milana, who was now sitting at a larger table talking to a small group, Adonato included. They sat down at the table and ordered some food and drink while engaging in the conversation. Nadiya and Kamilia informed Milana on the outcome of the case, and upon hearing about the Amulet Milana offered to take it, believing that she could find good uses for it. Kamilia handed it to her without any further comments. As they all told stories, listened to ballads, discussed current events, and speculated on what the future had in store for all of them, Nadiya came to appreciate the Nordic way of life a little more. Their way of life was not familiar to her, but surviving in this sort of climate and keeping in relatively good spirits, at least up front, was something she could respect.

Eventually it came to be that the three needed to get some sleep, as they planned to travel nonstop more or less to Winterhold. After saying their goodbyes and farewells, the three went to clean themselves up before retiring for the night. Early the next morning, they headed upstairs for breakfast to see Brunwulf waiting for them patiently. Glad for his company, the four dined together and the three asked the aged warrior for any final advice. He told them that other than the occasional blizzards, snow bears, sabre cats, wolves, bandits, ice wraiths, and possibly Falmer, they should get to Winterhold without much trouble. After they finished their meals, Brunwulf went ahead and walked with them to their carriage. As they strolled on the bridge, he told them about what to expect in Winterhold and about the quickest road to that city. Once they reached the carriage, he decided to say some parting words.

"Well girls, you three have certainly made a name for yourselves, Maria and Alanni especially! I hope you three keep safe on your journey, and whatever awaits to challenge you three I know you all will beat them no matter the odds. Oh, and here, as a token of my appreciation." At this, he took out a sizeable bag from his pack and handed it to them. "I've collected some soul gems during my travels and expeditions, and I thought they'd be better in your hands. I've no use for them since I'm no mage or scholar. Oh, and there should be about a thousand gold in that sack as well. You three earned it, and this is the least I can give."

The three opened their eyes wide in surprise at the man's generosity. Nadiya was the first to speak up. "Brunwulf! Why are you giving us so much money? And gems too?"

"You three did quite a bit to help this city despite only being here for a single day. You all helped to put an end to hostilities between the Nords and the Dark Elves even if only temporarily, and you two also solved the case of Calixto plaguing the city with his killings. Hell, now that I think about it I should have given more!"

"No Brunwulf, what you gave us is more than enough. Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome. Now, I hate to cut things short but I need to get back to the city. I've another busy day ahead of me. But if you three ever find yourselves near Windhelm, come stop by. I'd love to hear where your adventures take you three."

"We will, when things die down," said Nadiya. The three either shook hands with him one at a time, and just as he was about to leave Nadiya stopped him. "Hey Brunwulf, before we leave, there's something we need to tell you." He stopped and turned towards her with curiosity. "Yes, what is it?" he asked.

"We haven't been entirely honest with you. The names we told you aren't our real names. You see, we're enemies of the Thalmor, and to be safe we gave ourselves false names." With this revelation, Brunwulf was the one to be surprised, and it showed on his face. After a moment, Nadiya continued, "My name is Nadiya Atreides. This is Milana and Kamilia Artorius respectively. Like you I was a once a Legionnaire, but due to our actions I fear the Thalmor may be looking for us. So forgive us for being dishonest on our names and only our names, it was to keep ourselves safe."

For a long moment, Brunwulf looked at her with an inscrutable aspect. Finally, he nodded with understanding and said, "I understand leaving the Legion to take on a bigger task. I did something similar myself years ago. No matter where you go and who you fight, keep safe Nadiya, Milana, Kamilia. Long live the Empire." With that, he turned around and continued onwards to the city without a second look back.

Nadiya went to the driver seat while Kamilia went inside the cabin. Milana joined her sister shortly after thanking the stable keeper, who in turned thanked Kamilia for saving his wife. With all said and done, Nadiya maneuvered the carriage around and began the journey to the city of Winterhold, where the College awaited them.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this work, the Elder Scrolls series belongs to Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks

The biggest delays on their long journey to Winterhold involved the unending snow. There were several major blizzards that forced the three to stop for longer than they'd like, and they once had to spend nearly a day stuck in a canyon that had been beset by an avalanche. Oftentimes wild animals would approach aggressively, but only twice did a particularly hungry predator attack, which the three would fend off with some difficulty. In every other instance either one of them would singe the predator with lightning and frighten it off, or Nadiya would summon an atronach of some sort to tackle the beast. Apart from these delays and attacks the three kept on schedule They eventually saw the great Shrine to Azura, and it was then that they knew they were close. Privately, Nadiya vowed to visit it one day, if only to see what it looks like up close. Five days after departing Windhelm the three arrived at the outskirts of Winterhold at roughly midday, with the College casting a large shadow over the whole town which admittedly wasn't very large.

As the three entered the city, each took note of the surroundings. What was immediately obvious was that there were several ruined houses on the outskirts of the city, and weaving in and out of them were several well-equipped guards. There didn't appear to be any major fortifications, which lead the three to ponder why. For a city so isolated and harboring an institution full of mages, it seemed lightly defended. Perhaps its isolation was its best defense.

Kamilia as the driver maneuvered the carriage to what looked like an inn, seemingly the only one in the city, and parked it in a stall next to the inn. Directly across from it was a larger building, the second largest structure in the city apart from the looming College. Next to that building was another that bore a sign that had the words "Birna's Oddments." Along with a few nearby houses, Winterhold being called a city was a misnomer.

After parking the carriage, the three quietly assumed their masks, disembarked, grabbed a bag with various supplies and apparel, and headed to the inn for some food and drink, and to interact with the locals. Since they'll be staying here for a while, getting on the good side of the residents of this city would be a nice idea. As they walked to the front door they saw a couple of locals conversing with each other, a young Nord boy and a Dunmer man. Kamilia gave a friendly smile to them, and in response the elf raised an eyebrow while the boy waved and gave a slight smile in return. As the three walked in, Nadiya commented to Kamilia, "Maybe being happy isn't the norm here." At this, Kamilia scoffed and walked over to the bar for a drink while Nadiya and Kamilia went over to a table and waited for a server to help them out.

As they sat there, they conversed lightly with a couple of other patrons. As they talked, they began to learn a little about the history of the city firsthand, as well of the College. They had known that the city had suffered great hardships after an event called the Great Collapse destroyed much of the city, which was thought to have come about as a result of the eruption of Red Mountain. What the girls didn't know was that many have suspected that the College itself was responsible for the Collapse, and as a result many of the non-mages in Winterhold and all across Skyrim by extension had some animosity towards the College. That necromancy was sanctioned by the College further deepened suspicions. Although this animosity wasn't strong enough to make the mages rethink the viability of living in Skyrim, its undertones could be felt across the land, especially in the rural areas. The girls weren't too surprised that the Nords were disdainful of magic, but that the College was scrutinized by many was a bit of a surprise to them; in Cyrodiil, wizards, mages, and sorcerers all had little to worry about other than bureaucratic rules. Well, best to make do with what they had.

They also found out that to enter the College a small test was required. From the sounds of it the test was quite rudimentary, with only basic spells being required for the test. Otherwise, the townspeople didn't know too much about the College much less the inside, since the mages tend to keep to themselves.

After the three had their food and drinks, they gathered themselves and went outside the inn back to their carriage. They each drank some blood and took a backpack, then started to walk towards the entrance of the College, snow lightly falling from the heavy clouds above. As they drew closer, they saw a tall Altmer woman leaning on a pillar next to the entrance, sustaining a rather large flame in her hand and looking very bored. As the three came closer, she looked towards their direction and regarded them with a raised eyebrow. When it became apparent that the three intended to talk to her, she immediately snuffed the flame, stood up straight and began walking towards the newcomers, intrigued that there were what she assumed to be prospective students in a group. Once both sides could see the whites of each other's eyes clearly, the Altmer woman stopped and spoke pointedly.

"Well, this is unexpected. Generally prospective students tend to come alone, yet here are three of you. That is what you three are looking to be, correct? You all do not look to be traders or mere visitors."

Nadiya was the first to respond. "Yes, we are looking to become new students. We've always been skilled and interested in magic, and so we would like to enroll in this College if your institution can accommodate us."

The Altmer woman smiled and said, "Well then, I think you three should find a good home here. Before we proceed, introductions are in order. I am Faralda, and my specialty is in destruction magic, of which I am the main teacher of here. I am also the gatekeeper, and besides watching the entrance I screen any prospective students before judging whether they may enter the College at all. And who may you girls be?"

"I am Nadiya Atreides. This is Kamilia and Milana Artorius. We've actually come from Cyrodiil because we heard good things about this College."

"Have you now? Most intriguing. Have you come because this College is the only authorized magical institution in Skyrim? And for that matter, why Skyrim?"

"Yes to the first part, and to the second there're complications back home. We've been through a lot you see and we want a new place to call home. If you need to ask, we're no criminals; of that I can assure you."

"Right. Well, a pleasure to meet all of you. Now, if you three wish to enter and become a student, there are a couple of required tests. It's nothing difficult and it won't take long. First a test of how well you can manage a spell, and then a series of background questions to determine whether to you are a good fit for the College, as a precaution. Before I test you all though, I am curious. May I ask each of you your intentions upon entrance to the College, assuming you all pass the tests?"

Nadiya was about to answer when Milana spoke suddenly. "I can tell you that on the part of me and my sister, we intend to learn more about the arcane and become proficient in the magical arts." Kamilia voiced her agreement right after.

Faralda nodded, and then looked towards Nadiya. "And what about you Nadiya?"

Nadiya appeared thoughtful for a moment and then gave her a cheeky look, saying, "I just wanted to see what it looks like inside."

At this Faralda was caught off-guard, and then laughed. "Ha! Humor is often in short supply here. But I sense that perhaps you're after more than just that. I presume you're here for the same reason your twin friends are?"

"Yes, and for a few other reasons."

"Alright then, onto the magic test. So, who would like to go first?"

Milana stepped forward and said, "I'll take the leap."

"Very well. Come here and let's see… how about you cast a firebolt on that seal right there. Do you know that spell?"

"I do, I'm quite adept at destruction spells myself."

"Interesting. You will likely be competing with the Khajiit student then. J'zargo is his name and he's the only Khajiit in the College, one very much bent on mastering destruction spells. Now that I think about it, I should probably keep a closer eye on him, he's been up to some mischief as of late. Anyways, back to the test. Please cast a firebolt whenever you're ready."

Faralda had just finished talking when Milana immediately started to charge up a firebolt, and within seconds launched a strong firebolt at the specified seal, lighting it up. Faralda smiled and said, "Yes, I think you and J'zargo will be quite the competitors, provided there's competition on your part. And if you would to learn new destruction spells, I'm the one you should see. Alright then, who would like to go next?"

At this Kamilia stepped forward. "I'll go now."

"Excellent. For you, how about you demonstrate the spell of Fear on that same seal?"

Kamilia smiled and said, "Very well." She then charged up the spell and shortly thereafter cast it on the indicated seal, once again being lit up by the spell. Faralda commented, "Well done. Should you have the need to further your illusion skills, Drevis Neloren will be the one to seek out. He is the teacher of such magic in this College. A little odd, but most mages are anyhow. And finally you, Nadiya. Let's see… how about you conjure up a flame atronach on the seal? Not too many mages I've encountered are skilled in the art of conjuration."

Nadiya nodded and turned towards the seal. She closed her eyes, and stood in place serenely. For a moment, the twins wondered what Nadiya was doing, knowing that she was one to try and impress people with authority with displays of her power. On the other hand, Faralda was suspecting that either the Breton forgot the spell, or didn't know it to begin with, which to Faralda was not surprising since conjuring entities from Oblivion are among the more difficult spells among all the schools of magic. She was about to ask if Nadiya needed help when the girl suddenly opened her eyes and thrust out her hands towards the seal, her palms alight with arcane fire. A mere second after this display of power, the seal lit up and a portal leading to Oblivion opened up. Right as this happened, a flame atronach rose out of the portal and immediately awaited its master's command.

Faralda was about to congratulate Nadiya when she noticed a key detail that a lesser wizard would have missed. Her surprise was obvious as she said, "Well well, a flame thrall! I wouldn't have expected a newcomer to have already known such a spell. If you wish to learn more conjuration spells you may speak to Phinis Gestor, although if you're able to cast thrall spells I'm not sure how much more he can actually teach you."

After this she congratulated the girls on passing the spell tests so easily, and then proceeded to ask the three background questions after Nadiya banished the thrall. They ranged from general information such as age and place of birth to specific inquiries about how adept they were in the different schools of magic, with the Altmer quickly noting their answers on some parchment. After a little under an hour, all was noted down in the parchment. Faralda informed the three of her satisfaction with their answers, congratulated the newcomers on their acceptance into the College, and then beckoned the three to follow her, the three doing so eagerly.

As they trudged across the long walkways to the institution, Nadiya looked out to the east to see the vast, forbidding tundra that they had crossed in order to get to this isolated College. Besides the tundra, there was the Sea of Ghosts, stark in its visage and forbidding to those willing to brave the icy waters. Somewhere beyond the Sea was the lost continent of Atmora, the land where Man had originated from. Nadiya wondered if anyone still lived there; from what she understood, worsening conditions had caused it to become uninhabitable. If there was no conflict with the Dominion, she would have been interested in an expedition to that fabled land. But alas, she must stay and fight. Eventually anyways.

There was some small talk as they all proceeded. Faralda revealed that she was taking them to the Master Wizard of the College, Mirabelle Ervine. Faralda also told them that she is a great mage, and a Breton one at that. Nadiya smirked at the fact that the High Elf had to mention Mirabelle's race. The Altmer always had a high opinion of themselves when it came to magic, and they only tended to accept Bretons as the only race of Man capable of competing with the elves when it came to magic. Of course not all Altmer thought that way, although those who were raised mainly around other Altmer were liable to have that feeling; Altmer raised in a diverse society, much less so.

As they walked towards the entrance to the College, the large gate swung open on its own accord. They passed through and continued across a courtyard towards a large statue in the center, alit with arcane energy. The four continued to make small talk as they walked around it, and as they came around, there stood two figures having a somewhat tense conversation. Faralda motioned them to stop and wait until their conversation was completed. As they waited, Nadiya took a closer look at the figures, and widened her eyes in shock. One of them was dressed in mage apparel, likely the Master Wizard, and the other was without a doubt a Thalmor agent, swathed in those unmistakable black and gold robes.

Nadiya's heart dropped instantly, and once the twins saw the Thalmor agent they immediately readied themselves to stop Nadiya from doing something rash. Fortunately, Nadiya was only clenching her fists, although the twins knew that they had to keep an eye on her. As they waited, Faralda sensed that the three were very much on edge, based on their silent glares at the Thalmor agent, Ancano. Faralda herself was suspicious of Ancano's intentions, but as he was an official guest of the College she could not do much more than privately voice her disapproval to the Archmage and the Master Wizard.

As all four listened into the conversation between the Wizard and the Thalmor agent, it was revealed that the Wizard was telling the agent not to overstep his boundaries as part of an agreement made by her and the Archmage, and if he abides by the agreement then they will continue to regard him as a welcome guest "advisor." After some hesitation, the agent agreed albeit with visible frustration, and curtly turned around and walked into the large tower behind him. The Wizard sighed, and sensed the presence of others that had watch their exchange. She turned around, coming face-to-face with Faralda, a pair of twins and another girl standing not far behind her. Mirabelle's face softened at the prospect of receiving new students and motioned for Faralda to come closer to have a personal conversation with the Altmer, and once she did Mirabelle spoke to Faralda with a less-curt voice than before.

"Hello Faralda. I do not recognize your accomplices. Am I to assume that these three are hoping to become students here?"

"Yes Mirabelle, they all have great magical abilities. They all passed the tests and evaluations splendidly, and in fact they all may be ready to become apprentices right away since they claim to be taught at another institution in Cyrodiil, and from what I observed they've demonstrated their capabilities quite well."

"Really? They certainly look experienced. Tell me a little more about them."

Faralda then gave Mirabelle a quick rundown of the skills and background history of the three newcomers. Afterwards, Mirabelle appeared satisfied and thanked Faralda for her work.

"You are welcome. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to return to the ever-important job of watching snow fall." At this, Faralda turned around to head back across the bridge and waved farewell to the three while Mirabelle walked towards the three with an interested look. Once she came up to them, she glanced at each of them before speaking to them as a whole.

"Hello all. As you might have guessed, Faralda was telling me about you all and your history and abilities. With that all said and done, I'd like to formally welcome everyone to the College. Now, although Faralda told me your backgrounds, I would like to hear for myself about why you all decided to come here. And please be honest, that would be most helpful."

At this, Nadiya contemplated telling her the same things that they had said to Faralda for sake of convenience. But based on what they had listened into, it seemed that not everyone in the College was receptive to the presence of the Thalmor. If there were enough people here that resented them, then perhaps they could sway them to their cause. Because of this, she was tempted to tell her part of the truth, since her aversion to the presence of the Thalmor agent now override everything else. After a few long seconds, she decided to take a chance.

She motioned Mirabelle to come a little closer, and the Wizard did so despite raising an eyebrow. Nadiya then spoke softly to her, "Truthfully? We're here to get away from the Thalmor. We're definitely not fond of them, and we are more than a little surprised to see an agent of theirs here."

"Ah, I see. With Winterhold being under the command of the Stormcloaks I can see why you'd be surprised, and a little apprehensive as well I see. Although Winterhold is not affiliated with the Empire at the moment thanks to the actions of the jarl here, the College retains a good deal of independence from the rest of Skyrim, even within Winterhold itself. With that said, the Thalmor sees our independence from the Stormcloaks as an opportunity to send their prying eyes this way. To my… displeasure, the Arch-Mage has approved the Thalmor's request to send an "advisor" to "aid" the College despite the objections from me and many others. However, I have done my best to make sure that Ancano, the Thalmor agent, does not interfere too much with the affairs of the College, and as of late he should be keeping mainly to himself and to the Arch-Mage. I hope that his presence won't be too much of an issue for you three."

"I see. Well, as long as he doesn't isn't around us I don't think I'll be too worried."

"He mostly observes the work of the Wizards here, generally not the students and apprentices unless one does something very noticeable to catch his attention. If you keep a low profile he should not bother you."

"Alright then. I suppose I could stay here with no issue then."

"Fantastic. Now that we got that out of the way, I believe it's time to show you three to your quarters. If you all will follow me…"

Mirabelle then beckoned the girls to follow her and they began to walk around the fountain to a different tower across the courtyard. As they entered, Mirabelle informed them that this is the Hall of Attainment, home to the apprentices of the College. The Wizard told them it will serve as their main quarters, as well as a place to practice their magic and alchemy. Mirabelle showed each of them to their rooms where the three put down their bags and began to unpack their things, and then she went to retrieve their College apparel as indicative of their membership of the College. The moment she left, the twins quickly walked over to Nadiya in her room, closed the door, and started to barrage their friend with questions.

"Nadiya, will you be alright with that guy being here? The agent I mean?" asked Kamilia with a tone of worry. Milana said nothing, only waiting for Nadiya's response.

Nadiya sighed heavily and sat down on a nearby chair, reclining backwards and shutting her eyes. After a few moments, she opened her eyes and looked at the twins with a face of resignation. "We came too far to find another home so soon. I'd rather not have us all be constantly on the move just because of my paranoia. If things really go south, then I'll be the one to leave. I just want you girls to be safe and finish your lessons, that's all. So yeah, I'll tolerate the agent's presence for now, but the moment the College finds him to be a liability then he's going to have an 'accident.' Once that happens, hopefully the Thalmor will be too preoccupied with other things to bother investigating the 'accident.' Hold on, I think she's coming back, we'll talk later about this."

As she finished talking, Mirabelle knocked on the door and asked, "Are you girls done? We've a few more things to cover until I introduce you to your fellow students."

"Yes, we're about to come out right now," responded Milana. At this, the three walked over to the door to greet Mirabelle. When they opened the door, the Wizard handed them their apparel and told them to change and return to her once they finished. After this done, Mirabelle took them all outside only for everyone to be hit in the face with howling snow. Mirabelle looked at the three with a sigh and said, "If there's one thing you need to get used to in Winterhold, it's the surprise snowstorms. In these parts of Skyrim, the blizzards can prove to be very deadly very quickly, so keep an eye out for signs of them whenever you travel around this hold no matter how sunny it is." After this advice, Mirabelle continued to lead them around to the other parts of the College, such as the quarters for the Wizards themselves, and then the Arcaneum, or library, the Archmage quarters, whom was not present at the moment, and then finally the main hall where all of their fellow students were gathered. As they headed into the large, circular hall, the three could see a small group of people being instructed by an elderly man on the other side of the hall. "That would be Tolfdir, the foremost expert on alteration magic in Skyrim, and I wouldn't be surprised if in Tamriel as well. This is where we part ways and you join them. I think that Tolfdir has started introductory lessons on alteration, and those three apprentices have just arrived mere days before you three did so I do not believe you need to spend too much time catching up. If you have any questions for me, you may usually find me in the Arcaneum or the Hall of Countenance." With these last words, Mirabelle turned around to walk to a nearby door. The twins and Nadiya looked at each other, then all started to head towards the group.

As they approached, Tolfdir turned to see the approaching newcomers and smiled. "Welcome, welcome! We were just beginning, please stay and listen."

And so they did. After introducing himself to the twins and Nadiya the group of apprentices listened to Tolfdir's lecture for the next thirty minutes or so, and even practiced their alteration skills which mainly involved wards. By the end of the lesson, Tolfdir appeared satisfied and concluded by telling the group of an archeological excavation some distance to the west, about four hours away by horse. "And if we could all meet at the entrance down in Winterhold at nine in the morning tomorrow to head to Saarthal that would wonderful. I'd like to have you all to have a firsthand look at these ancient Nordic ruins, and to understand what to look for when delving in ruins. It should be safe, but as always, when going into these kind of places it is best to exercise caution. Are there any other questions before I dismiss you all?"

"Yes, I don't believe we all know each other?" piped up an inquisitive-looking Dunmer girl, looking to be in her early twenties, or at least the equivalent of a human in their twenties.

"Ah yes, introductions. How silly of me to forget the first thing to do! How about we start with you, and we go circle around to your right. Your names, where you're from, and why you decided to come here to the College."

"Very well. I am Brelyna Maryon from House Telvanni, first in my family to leave Morrowind in a long time. I came here to learn more about magic, as well as to do research."

"A pleasure Brelyna. You'll certainly find many opportunities to not only do your own research but also to do fieldwork, if you're interested in that sort of thing. You young lad?"

"Um, hello. I am Onmund, and I'm native to Skyrim. In my home village people abhor magic, so I came here in order to develop my skills and talents. I was hoping I wouldn't be the only Nord here, but I suppose that's not the case."

"Now now, don't be thinking like that. Even if you're one of the only Nords here in the College, your race is nothing compared to what you're able to contribute to not only the College but to yourself as well. Don't worry about what you are, be concerned with what you're capable of. Onto you?"

"Ah, yes. This one is called J'Zargo, and this one hails from Cyrodiil. People in Cyrodiil are more concerned with politics and petty matters, so this one came to the College to achieve J'Zargo's goal, to master destruction spells."

"Very good J'Zargo. In this treacherous land there are many chances to practice destruction spells, and hopefully you'll put them to good use. Now then, you young miss?"

"Hello. I am Milana Artorius and I come from Cyrodiil. I came here to finish my magic instruction that was interrupted some time before I came here, and once finished I expect to stay here for some time to do research like Brelyna over there."

"Wonderful. It warms my heart to see young minds so eager to learn. And you, the other twin?"

"Hey there. I'm Kamilia Artorius, and like my sister I come from Cyrodiil. I came here to make sure she doesn't blow up the place, heh. But honestly, I'm here to learn more about illusion spells and the like."

"Interesting. Now I'm sure your sister won't blow up anything; the amount of wards in this hall alone would deter all but the strongest explosions. It's so rare to see twins here, the only other ones I've met are part of the Companions, living down in Whiterun. Anyways, it's nice to have you here. And at last, my fellow Breton?"

"I am Nadiya Atreides, and I come from Cyrodiil like my twin friends here. I seek to learn more about destruction and conjuration spells, and from there perhaps I will move on depending on the circumstances."

"I see. I hope you know that even if you do leave, you will always have a home here at the College, unless you do something very antagonistic. Well, it is great to formally meet you all and having you all greet each other. Now I don't know about any of you young folks but I haven't eaten much this morning, so I think I will have some food if any of you would like to join, and perhaps meet some of the other wizards if they are present."

With those concluding words, Tolfdir started to head out and the whole group decided to tag along, all of them mildly hungry. As they walked, the apprentices decided to acquaint themselves with one another more closely, with Milana talking to Brelyna, Kamilia speaking with J'Zargo, and Nadiya conferring with Onmund initially. As they walked, they all became more familiar with one another quite quickly, and by the time they reached the main dining area all were talking as if they were old friends. By this time, it was late in the afternoon and there were some other staff members and mages in the dining area, and the six began to integrate themselves with the rest of the College members as best they can. As Nadiya sat down to talk to Tolfdir about the different spells within alteration magic, she spotted out of the corner of her eye the agent, Ancano, standing with presumably the Arch-mage and observing the other mages with sharp eyes. She tried to conceal her glare as best as she could, but Tolfdir, being of an age when one could easily detect something amiss at a glance, grew concerned. "Miss Atreides, is something the matter?"

Nadiya opened her mouth to voice her disapproval, then stopped. She didn't know if the Thalmor's ears were sharp, but she wasn't about to take that risk. In a low voice, she motioned Tolfdir to come closer, and once she felt that Ancano wouldn't be able to hear without casting a listen spell, she spoke. "I don't like that guy, that's all. I mean, he's a Thalmor agent. Why is he even here?"

Upon this small revelation, Tolfdir immediately understood. "Oh, I understand now. Yes, not many in the College like his presence here, myself included. However, he was invited as a guest by the Archmage, the circumstances of this invitation being suspect to me. Because of this, I will not question the Archmage's decision unless I can see that Ancano's influence proves to be negative. Judging by your reaction to him here, I feel like you have some bad history with the Thalmor. Rest assured that none of us will let him bother the apprentices much, if at all. Just mind your actions, and he won't ask you questions. Does this all make sense?"

"It does. And yeah, I've more than a little bad blood with the Thalmor. I've tried to put that behind me, but his presence here is not helping me."

"Alright. If you'd like, I know of that some of the wizards here, myself included, have some errands that need to be done all around Skyrim. Now, it's entirely up to you whether or not you'd like to be away from the College for extended periods of time, but these small quests are available. Just let me or any of the wizards know if something needs to be done around the province and we will usually find something for you to do outside of the College. Does this sound agreeable to you?"

Nadiya visibly grew relieved and said to Tolfdir, "Yes! That'd be great actually. I would like to see the rest of Skyrim since this province has always been intriguing to me in a very rustic way. No offense meant if you are offended, but that's how I always saw Skyrim as."

Tolfdir smiled and said, "No harm done. That's how I always saw Skyrim myself to be honest. I've travelled a fair bit around the continent myself, and after seeing the Imperial City, High Rock, and parts of Morrowind, I came to a similar conclusion myself. There's a certain atmosphere about this province that makes feel like I'm still living in a time when Men were still new to Tamriel. Whenever you travel around Skyrim, I am sure you will understand what I mean."

"After being in Windhelm for a day, I can empathize," concluded Nadiya. As she finished her food, she thanked Tolfdir for his time, got up and went over to put her dishes away. She then decided to head over to see her friends both old and new, who all had finished eating for some time already. As she came closer to them, she saw Brelyna, Milana, and Kamilia all watching Onmund and J'Zargo armwrestle with each other, with a few other spectators watching this display of marital might. Nadiya went over to the twins and Brelyna and said to them, "So, who's the mightier one out of the two?"

"Onmund had an initial advantage, but J'Zargo is proving to be more resilient than I thought," replied Brelyna, not taking her eyes off the match.

"Yeah. Right now it's all up in the air as to who'll win," commented Kamilia. "Maybe if there was a small distraction that might give one of them the advantage."

As they watched, Onmund and J'Zargo visibly grew increasingly fatigued, and people were beginning to think that this match would end in a draw when Onmund did something very surprising. He stared J'Zargo intensely, and as he did so he cleared his throat and then shouted a kind of Nordic battle cry, getting the attention of everyone in the area. J'Zargo blinked in surprise, and as he did so he loosened his grip, just enough for Onmund to overpower the Khajiit and slam his hand onto the table. Onmund shouted "VICTORY!" rose up and started to do a very silly dance, while J'Zargo groaned and rubbed his hand, stinging with some pain after being defeated. All around everyone cheered for the victor while Kamilia and Brelyna grinned and cheered Onmund on. Milana and Nadiya came over to sit with J'Zargo and reassure him. "Hey now, it was all in good fun, no?" asked Nadiya with a grin.

"This one thinks that the Nord cheated. Ah well, J'Zargo is still his better in destruction spells," muttered the Khajiit. He turned to look at Onmund, and upon seeing him dance terribly started to laugh. "And his better in dancing too! J'Zargo shall show him what a master this one is in this particular art." J'Zargo got up and began to dance as well, while a couple of nearby spectators took a lute and a flute and started to play some impromptu music. All around people began to laugh, clap, and dance in good jest. Nadiya sat next to Milana, laughing at the spectacle and looking around to watch the rest of the members of College having a good time. As she observed, she saw that Ancano was shaking his head in disgust and heading out to leave, leaving the Arch-Mage wondering what got the agent out of the hall. Nadiya watched him leave with narrowed eyes, and once he left she turned to see Milana looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "Nadiya, don't let him get to you too much. It's not like he knows who you are, and I don't know if he would want to."

"Sorry Mil. You're right, I should just enjoy this."

"No need to apologize. Now how about we see you dance? That'd be a sight for sore eyes."

"Hah! Only if you come up with me."

"I don't think that's – HEY!" Milana exclaimed as Nadiya grabbed her hand and took her up to the other dancers, with Kamilia and Brelyna. As they went up, the Nord and the Khajiit apprentices cheered for them coming up, and soon the other members of the College were bearing witness to the ridiculous dancing that these six new students were showing, and they loved it. Even the Archmage had to smile at the antics that these students were causing. In this day and age, any excuse to have some fun was greatly needed. Especially being isolated so far north, there were times where one needed to sit back and relax after spending all day practicing magic. Exciting as that may be especially when breakthroughs occur, research and studies were often boring work, and it wasn't uncommon for unplanned parties such as this to occur out of nowhere and be initiated by something small like silly dancing.

After the dancing came the drinking, then more dancing, then the telling of stories and tales both real and imaginary, and then listening to the musically-inclined members of the College take turns playing their favored instrument. Some played traditionally, and a few played using arcane means. For instance, Tolfdir levitated a lute and a drum together and played them in pleasing harmony. After about two hours, people began to file out individually or in small groups, and eventually the six new students began to head out back to their Hall. Once they returned, they washed up and then sat around for another hour exchanging life stories before one by one each went back to their respective rooms to fall asleep, starting with Brelyna, Milana, J'Zargo, Onmund, and then Kamilia and Nadiya.

As Nadiya began to drift to sleep, she began to think about how wonderful her new home is. Of course, the Thalmor having an agent here was the single blemish on this College, but she believed that as long as she did what the Wizards had suggested to her, she should be fine. Nevertheless, she needed to find a way to either evict him from the College or eliminate him altogether, for as long as he's here there was little chance that her plans would move forward.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this work, the Elder Scrolls series belongs to Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks

In the morning, Nadiya awoke with a slight headache. Ugh, maybe I shouldn't have drunk twelve glasses of wine, she thought sluggishly. I wonder how everyone else is doing?

She put on her College apparel with some difficulty and then walked outside her room to see no one else in the common room. Curious, she checked the time and saw that it was a quarter past eight in the morning. Well then, time to be the morning rooster she thought. She walked around to each of the rooms to knock on doors, and one by one she managed to get everyone up and ready, although not without difficulty. She was the soberest one in the group of six interestingly enough, and it was not until five minutes before nine that she managed to lead everyone outside, all dressed appropriately and equipped with adequate gear for the journey. Once outdoors, the shock of the cold weather sobered everyone up very quickly, and at nine everyone had gathered at the entrance to meet with Tolfdir, who was chuckling at the sight of six students trying their best to act normal. "It's good to see that everyone had a fun night. Now, I've arranged for some horses to help us get to Saarthal, which should take us about four hours. Does everyone have adequate supplies? I do have extra gear if anyone needs something, food, gloves, so on and so forth?" When nobody responded, he said, "Alright then! I will have another horse to come along and bring those extra supplies just in case. If everyone could just follow me, I will take us to our steeds."

He then led everyone down to the city's stables, where the innkeeper awaited them with the horses. Nadiya and the twins noticed their horses and carriage still there, and they collectively realized they forgot to unpack everything from it. Their supplies were not the things they were worried the most about, but rather it was the blood hidden inside which was not something they want compromised. They made an excuse to Tolfdir and then went to check on their things. Thankfully everything was still in place, and after refilling their blood canteens they decided to leave everything for now and fully unpack everything once they've returned. Upon rejoining the group, they all mounted their horses with little difficulty now that everyone was fully sober, and they all started to follow Tolfdir, all riding along at an easy pace.

For the next four hours, things were uneventful. There were some wolves and even a couple of ice wraiths that would come close, but the wolves were scared away easily enough, and as for the ice wraiths they were handled quite effectively, the first by Tolfdir and the second by J'Zargo. When he defeated one of the wraiths, J'Zargo boasted and said, "See? J'Zargo is leaving you all behind. This one doubts that any of you can catch up." Tolfdir chuckled while the other members of the group either scoffed or shook their heads. Nadiya simply kept moving forward, knowing that although he was definitely quite skilled, he would stand no real chance against her if they were pitted against each other. Although she wasn't a fully-trained battlemage yet, her experience and the spells she knew put J'Zargo's abilities to shame. It was just a matter of fact.

Thankfully during the trip there were no snowstorms, although snow did start to lightly fall once they were close to Saarthal. They arrived at the ruins an hour past midday to meet another group of people, some of them random College mages that were either doing their own research or helping with the excavation, others being town guards that were instructed to keep the mages safe, with some suspicion on the part of the guards themselves. Unfortunate, but to be expected given the general distrust the Nords had for magic. With the idea that Nord burial grounds were sacred, the guards' disapproval was magnified.

Once the group tied their horses and got their gear, they started for the entrance and allowed Tolfdir to take the lead. Before they all entered, he warned them all to keep an eye out and be careful of any possible dangers in the ruins. When they all entered, Tolfdir began to lecture them all on the history of Saarthal, which stretched back thousands of years. It was the largest of the early Nord settlements, and was sacked by a mythical race called the "snow elves" during the Nords' quest for domination of the land. Since then, it has laid abandoned and forgotten until recent times.

As they walked through the dusty ruins, Nadiya began to take an interest in the ruins herself. Who knows what they will find down here? Although much of Saarthal remains to be explored, she was confident that whatever they find will be of great use or value. After all, adventurers tend to find interesting things in these places, sometimes even treasure.

Soon they reached a large atrium, and this was where Tolfdir assigned everyone different tasks. He told Brelyna to search for wards, Onmund to look for any residual energies, J'Zargo to determine if there was any tampering of the ruins, Kamilia to find any relatively intact, ancient texts, and Milana and Nadiya to assist Arniel Gane in his quest for artifacts. As they all went their separate ways, Nadiya and Milana discussed on what they might find.

"You think we'll find treasure down here? Or perhaps some long-lost daedric artifact?" asked Nadiya.

"I'm not too certain. I'm not an expert on Nordic history myself, so I wouldn't really know what to find. Maybe we'll find that and more," replied Milana.

As they continued, they walked through a small series of tunnels and were about to reach the end when they bumped into a man very focused on his work. After apologizing to Arniel and informing him that they'll be his assistants for now, he sighed and told them to look around in the chambers to the north of him for artifacts. "And remember, don't damage anything. My research is of the utmost importance," he told them firmly. "I'm sure it is mister I'm very important College wizard," joked Nadiya to Milana behind his back, who chuckled in response.

After about fifteen minutes of searching around, Milana had gathered a couple of enchanted rings while Nadiya had found one, and both were about to head back when they noticed something on a brightly lit wall off to the side. "Does that look like an artifact to you?" asked Nadiya. "It does look like some kind of amulet. How about I give Arniel these rings while you take a look at it? Just don't activate a trap or anything of the sort," said Milana. "Yeah, yeah, do your thing then," responded Nadiya while she handed Milana the ring she found. As Milana walked off to hand the artifacts off to Arniel, Nadiya approached the amulet and peered very closely at it. Curious, she decided to touch it, reasoning that if there were traps here they would have been triggered already what with her and Milana stomping around. The moment her fingers lifted the amulet off the wall, several gates suddenly came down, trapping her in that little space.

"Woah, hey!" she yelped. She looked around to see if there was a lever or switch of some kind, but found nothing. Realizing that she would have to face Milana's scolding, she shrugged and shouted, "Milana! Tolfdir! Arniel! Can someone help me?" Moments later, she heard the sound of hurried footsteps and soon Tolfdir, Milana, and Arniel came rushing towards her. "Gods Nadiya, you idiot! What did I tell you?!" exclaimed Milana with scorn. "Hey, in my defense this amulet looks pretty neat," Nadiya responded with a cheeky look. Milana rolled her eyes and began to look for a way to open the gates, when Tolfdir said to Nadiya, "Why don't you try putting the amulet on? Perhaps it might help you out." With some skepticism, Nadiya carefully clasped the amulet onto her neck, and right away a kind of resonance appeared on the wall where she took the amulet off of. "Well, well, would you look at that? Hmmm, I wonder… what effect might your spells have?" Tolfdir wondered aloud. Nadiya carefully felt the wall to see if it would simply come down, and when it didn't she decided to use a telekinetic push against the wall. She stood back, steeled herself in case the spell caused the wall to do something unpleasant, and then let loose. As the push hit the wall, it immediately collapsed and the gates retracted. Upon seeing that no one was in anymore danger or trouble, Arniel shook his head and immediately returned to his work.

Milana walked over to Nadiya and hit her on the arm. "Next time, at least wait for me to investigate with you."

"Yeah, but then we'd both be trapped," responded Nadiya with a knowing look. At this statement, Milana could not think of a response in time before Tolfdir said to them, "Look, there's a passageway behind the wall you just took down! Let's see where it leads to." He then started to walk down the passage, casting a light as he did so. Nadiya and Milana looked at each other with raised eyes, then both went to go follow him.

As they all walked, Tolfdir marveled at the ruins, highly excited to be able to explore a previously unknown section of Saarthal. Nadiya and Milana kept on the alert in the meantime, watching for anything that might look dangerous. Very soon, they reached a small room with a podium in the middle and four large iron coffins at each corner. As they walked forward and Tolfdir began to look around the room, something very curious happened.

One moment, he appeared to be animated and full of life despite his advanced age, and the next moment, it was as if he turned into a statue. Startled, Nadiya waved her hand over his eyes, yet he offered no response. She looked towards Milana, who was still "alive." Milana looked just as shocked as Nadiya was, as the atmosphere and color of the room had become different as well, almost if they had entered a dream. "What in the world is going on?" Milana asked out loud. Nadiya was about to respond when suddenly a blinding light came from the center of the room, where the podium was. The light vanished as quickly as it appeared, and in its place Nadiya and Milana were stunned to see a tall, spectral Altmer wearing strange and fanciful robes. The two didn't know how to react when the apparition spoke.

"Hold mages, and listen well… Know that you two have set in motion a chain of events that cannot be stopped. Judgment has not been passed, as you had no way of knowing. Judgment will be passed on your actions to come, and how you deal with the dangers ahead of you. This warning is passed to you because the Psijic Order believes in you two. You, mages, and you two alone have the potential to prevent disaster. Take great care, and know that the Order is watching."

Just as he stopped talking, he suddenly flashed in a blinding light, and the instant the light vanished, so did the apparition. A moment after this all happened, the world suddenly seemed to return to normal and Tolfdir came back to "life." He paused as if something odd had taken place, and turned to ask the two, "I – I feel rather strange all of a sudden. What in the world just happened?"

After gathering themselves from the shock of what happened, they started telling him all that had occurred in the past few moments, and once finished Tolfdir shook his head in disbelief. "The Psijic Order? Are you two quite sure about that? That's very odd. And danger ahead? Why that doesn't make any sense at all. The Psijics have no connection to these ruins. And no one's seen any of their order in a long time." Nadiya then asked, "Why would this Order be contacting us then?" To this Tolfdir responded, "I have no idea, but it's fascinating. The Isle of Artaeum disappeared over a hundred years ago, and no one has seen them since. And yet now suddenly, they have chosen to contact you two? Why, it's intriguing! If nothing else, I'd take it as a compliment. The Psijics have only ever dealt with those they feel worthy."

"Well, with that odd moment said and done, perhaps we should delve more into these ruins. After all, the rest of Saarthal needs to be mapped out. I wonder if there's another way out of here?" he concluded. Just as he finished that sentence, the doors to the coffins one by one fell down as if on cue, and out of them stepped horrid-looking reanimated corpses with glowing eyes, three in total. At once the three prepared their weapons and spells and Tolfdir shouted, "Draugr! Look out!"

Nadiya immediately charged at one and knocked it down before it could lift its sword. Meanwhile, Milana fired off a firebolt at another, and Tolfdir used telekinesis to lift a large rock and hurl it at the third. The rock he threw hit his target with enough force to crush its head, while Milana's firebolt caused her target to be set alight, and as it tried frantically to douse the flames with little success Milana followed up by using a flame stream to gradually put it down, and soon it was nothing more than charred remains. On the side, Nadiya used a shock spell to stun her target as it was on the floor, and then she quickly took out her ebony waraxe to behead the monster as it laid helplessly on the ground. Moments after the undead left their coffins, they all were down on the floor dead once more, this time permanently.

Shaken by the surprise attack, they collected themselves while Nadiya said to Tolfdir, "What in the world? Draugr? Why are there undead corpses here?"

Tolfdir looked at her with a realization and said, "Ah, I remember that you aren't native to Skyrim. Yes, they are undead corpses, remains of ancient Nords that were buried here as a sign of honor, and in turn they are enchanted to defend their burial grounds even in death. A grim thing, but it is how the ancient Nords were like."

"Oh, damn. I didn't know Saarthal was a burial ground," commented Milana.

"All Nordic ruins have these graves. I believe it was a way for the ancient Nords to ward off looters in the absence of magic, among other things. After all, most people are fearful of the undead. You two however handled them quite well. Especially you, Nadiya. I've only ever seen soldiers fight like how you did. If you don't mind me asking, were you an Imperial Legionnaire? Of course you are not obligated to answer, I'm just curious that's all."

Nadiya regarded Tolfdir with an inquisitive look, and then decided that he was trustworthy enough. After all, he seems to have understood her reasons for hating the Thalmor. "In a way, yes. I don't want to give away too much, but I was part of the Legion for some time while I was enrolled in the College of Whispers."

"Interesting. I haven't had any students that have served in the Legion before. Or the Stormcloaks for that matter. Very interesting. Alright then, let's get a move on, there looks to be another passage through that coffin. And don't worry Miss Atreides, your secret is safe with me."

"Thank you sir. I appreciate it."

After this little exchange, the three of them began to move out, but not before looking around to see if there was anything valuable in this area. After all, they wouldn't want to miss anything important if it would be of benefit to the College, or themselves. As they proceeded they came into another chamber, this one much larger than the previous one and filled with even more coffins. As they entered, the coffins began to open up and more dragur came out to greet them. Tolfdir sighed and said to the two girls, "Well, you two now know what to do."

Several minutes later, the three of them stood around looking at the carnage, as over a dozen draugr lay fully dead at their feet. Whatever injuries they had suffered were healed quickly enough with a healing spell, and Nadiya had to quaff a healing potion because she had gotten too overzealous when she charged a group of the undead corpses. Other than that, the three took care of the draugr with little trouble.

In this atrium, Nadiya and Milana looked over to see Tolfdir marveling at the sight. "Remarkable! I'd like to spend some time studying all of this. You two go on ahead, I will catch up shortly. And don't worry about me, whatever that might do me harm now lies down on the floor." Nodding in agreement, Nadiya and Milana began to set out on their own. When they reached the next room, they found even more draugr. "I think I remember why the life of an adventurer is so dangerous," remarked Nadiya as the undead rushed to attack. "There's just too many things out there ready to kill you."

After quite some time, killing draugr and gathering up loot and gold, the two managed to meet up with Tolfdir who had gotten his fill of information. "There you two are! I have a feeling we're getting close to the ends of these tunnels based on the writings on the walls. Let's go, I can take the lead. And remember, although I can see you two have done your share of adventuring, be prepared for anything."

They then started to walk down a narrow corridor, and shortly they began to hear some kind of a low-pitched hum that grew louder the further they went down. They turned into another corridor, and after exiting it they emerged onto balcony overlooking a very large atrium with the source of the hum now clearly visible. It was a very large, strange, levitating orb that was buzzing and glowing with bluish-green arcane energy, down in the middle of the atrium atop a kind of spherical pit. All around the atrium were numerous draugr lying in their little alcoves, but these ones seemed unlikely to attack with their advanced state of decay even for draugr. There was one fanciful-looking draugr sitting on a chair at a desk just next to the stairs that led down from the balcony the three were on, and they kept an eye on that one as they descended.

Tolfdir was visibly amazed at the find. "In all my years I've never seen anything quite like this. I wonder what it could be?" he wondered aloud. Nadiya and Milana were at a loss for words themselves. Milana was busy studying the inscriptions on the orb, and so was Nadiya. Nadiya had no idea what the inscriptions meant, so she looked at them curiously for a bit and then turned to see the ornate draugr rising up from its desk. Alarmed, she shouted, "Hey guys, let's take care of this corpse first and then we can study the orb later!"

Tolfdir and Milana turned and instantly prepped their spells, while Nadiya charged forward headstrong as always. She readied her usual stun spell and her waraxe, and once she was steps away she fired her spell and swung her axe. Surprisingly, the spell dissipated and the axe simply bounced back. Nadiya stood dumbfounded for a split second while the draugr laughed quite deviously, and then it grabbed a sword and a staff off of its desk to begin its own counterattack. When the draugr swung its weapon, Nadiya raised her axe to block the sword only to face the staff inches away from her eyes. She immediately rolled away to avoid the staff's burst of lightning, and when she got up she assumed her battle stance, knowing that this was a legitimate match she now faced.

Tolfdir and Milana were equally shocked to see that Nadiya's attacks were futile. "Sir, what do we do?" asked a very worried Milana, who fired her own destruction spells with no effect on the invincible draugr. Tolfdir peered more closely at the draugr, and realized there was a steady stream of energy that the draugr seemed to be drawing from the orb. Immediately he responded, "Look, the draugr seems to be draining energy from the orb to maintain its invincibility! Quick, if we can sever the stream then perhaps Nadiya can put it down. Follow my lead!" He then raised his hands together and began to attempt to siphon energy away from the draugr towards himself instead, while Milana emulated his actions as best as she could.

For the next few minutes, things were quite tense with Milana and Tolfdir working as fast as they could to halt the energy drain by the draugr while Nadiya did her best to distract the draugr from attacking her comrades. Then, the draugr's stream suddenly creased and Tolfdir yelled, "Now! Try finishing it off now!" Nadiya then charged a thunderbolt, all while keeping the draugr at bay with her axe. After blocking another blow by its sword, she then fired her bolt, sending the corpse back a few meters, staggered but upright. This opening was all she needed, as she rushed forward, quickly severed the draugr's sword arm off, and then picked its sword and thrust it as hard as she could up through the bottom of its jaw and out the top of its head. The draugr's eyes flickered for a brief moment, and then died out, the now lifeless corpse collapsing right after. Nadiya took a moment to catch her breath, as fighting invincible foes is not at all enjoyable. As she stood by, Milana and Tolfdir rushed over and the aged wizard asked, "Nadiya! Are you hurt?"

Nadiya took a few more breaths and then replied, "Not hurt, winded. When fighting something invulnerable, you get tired pretty quickly." She then stood up straight and looked at Tolfdir, asking, "What now sir?"

"I think this has been enough excitement for one day. A week even, with what we found here. I think it's best if you two and the other students return back to the College and tell Savos Aren of this discovery immediately. I will stay here and get some of the other mages here to see if we can move it back to the College. Feel free to look around and see if there's anything worth retrieving, I can't imagine that draugr being just another corpse," he said to them before going off to examine the orb more closely. Nadiya and Milana decided to check on the draugr to see if they could find out more about him, with Nadiya examining the corpse and Milana looking at the desk. After some time, they found that the draugr was once a man named Jyrik Gauldurson, and he was imprisoned here for some kind of great crime. After a few more minutes of examining the room, they left with the writ condemning him, as well as his staff since it had an enchantment that neither of them had seen before, and it could be useful to someone in the College. They left Tolfdir behind to walk into another room with a strange, crescent wall with an indecipherable script written on it, and a small statue of a dragon on top of it. There was a large chest next to it, and the two rushed over to it to see what valuable treasures might lie inside. Upon opening it, they found around 1500 gold pieces, as well as some silver ingots and a beautifully carved Nordic dagger. They took it all and were about to leave when Nadiya suddenly got a strange feeling.

She thought she heard – chanting? Masculine, and saying something in what she thought was some sort of ancient Nordic tongue. But from where?

"Nadiya, are you okay?" asked Milana with interest.

Nadiya looked at her and said, "I think. Do you… do you hear that?"

"Hear what? I don't hear anything except for the occasional insect and the stones in here settling. Is that what you're getting at?"

"No, I think it sounds something like – chanting? Are you sure you don't hear anything?"

"No, nothing like that. Where do you think it's coming from?"

"I feel like it's coming from the wall right here, with the strange scripts on it. Let me investigate, one moment."

"Take your time, just make sure it's not another trap. We've run into plenty today, and gods know what lies between us and the exit."

Nadiya nodded and then slowly walked over to the wall. As she got closer, the chanting began to increase in volume. What could be waiting for her?

She came even closer, and as she did, a few scripts on the wall began to very lightly glow in a comforting blue color. This Milana did notice. "Nadiya, make sure it's not a trap! Be careful!"

Nadiya said nothing in response, and instead started to come within a meter of the glowing words. Now the chanting had magnified exponentially, and her vision was becoming blurred, except for the scripts which stood out quite brightly. Milana was about to step forward and pull her friend back when suddenly Nadiya jolted, and for a moment Milana feared the worst. Then, as quickly as her friend had started, the Breton stumbled backwards a bit and the glowing scripts ceased. Nadiya held her forehead for a moment, and then looked at Milana with confusion. "That was – odd. I feel like the wall just gave me – this is going to be weird to describe."

"Gave you what Nadiya? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I think I just learned how to say some phrase in a different language. It means 'ice form,' or something like that. I don't know why the wall taught me that phrase. What's weird is that I don't feel like it's a new spell. Whatever it is, it is magical though, in a very different way. It's some kind of magic I've never seen before."

"That's very strange! I saw you jolt for a moment and then you put your hand on your head. Can you tell me what happened then?"

"I felt the wall literally teach me that phrase. That's what happened when I moved like that. That's the only way I can describe it. Don't ask me how, because I'm just as lost as you are."

"Okay. And you think you are fine? You can think normally?"

"Yeah. Wait, can you come here and see if the same happens to you?"

Milana stepped forward to see if anything changed, and despite her walking around the wall to see if the wall affected her in the same way as her friend, nothing happened. "This is very strange. I'm not sure what exactly happened, and I have no idea what to say," said a bewildered Milana.

"Let's – let's just go. This is enough excitement for today. Let's get the others and start heading back. We can talk about this later."

After making sure they had everything secured and that Nadiya was fine, they made their way back to their friends who had experienced varying degrees of failure in their respective assignments. After telling them what had happened, they all went back outside, mounted their horses, and started back towards the College. It was another uneventful journey, and by the time they reached Winterhold, it was well into the evening and after Nadiya and Milana informed the Arch-Mage of the news, he handed them a magelight staff and told them that they might like to speak to the Librarian, Urag gro-Shub, over what books might be useful in determining what the orb is, as well as its purpose. After thanking him for the staff and the help they met up with the others and then all went to grab some dinner. They took their food and drink back to their Hall, and then after making sure no one else was there to listen in, especially the agent, Nadiya and Milana began to talk to the others about what had happened during their adventures in the undiscovered parts of Saarthal. As they told their tale, the other four began to speculate with them about what the Psijics might want with them, the origins and purpose of the orb, and why only Nadiya was able to gain the knowledge from the strange wall. After some time, Brelyna saw that it was a couple of hours past midnight, and it was then that all decided to drift off to sleep, each wishing one another a good night.

It was late in the morning when Nadiya awoke refreshed and content, and straightaway she decided to get Milana to go see Urag together. After she changed into her College gear, she went and opened her door to use the washroom, only to find herself face to face with Faralda. Actually, more like face to chest. Nadiya looked up at the Altmer and said, "Well, good morning to you too."

"Good morning dear. Sorry for appearing out of nowhere, but I needed to talk to you. By now, most of the College has heard of the discovery in Saarthal, of the orb. Tolfdir and some other mages are in the process of moving it here as we speak."

"Oh, cool. Did you come here to congratulate me or something?"

"No, the opposite actually. When I mean most of the College, this includes Ancano."

The instant Faralda revealed this, Nadiya's eyes widened. "O – okay. Is he doing something, bad I mean?"

"Well, he has been questioning your fellow students, the ones that you went with to Saarthal yesterday, as well as mages that were present there. The questions seem innocuous enough, but I'm here to tell you to mind what you say to him. I wanted to warn you because I've seen the way you have reacted to his presence. He thinks he can delve into anything he wants, but rest assured that my colleagues and I will not let him get far."

Nadiya looked at Faralda with a blank look for a moment, and then smiled with great appreciation. "Thank you so much Faralda. It's great to know that you're watching out for us."

Faralda smiled back and replied, "It's part of what we do dear. Ancano and I might share the same racial background, but to me he's less than dirt for being under the confluence of those Thalmor scum. Remember what I told you, and brace yourself for when he questions you." Having said her warning, she turned and went to leave. Nadiya checked up on Milana only to see her still asleep, and so decided to see Urag by herself. Nadiya washed up, mentally braced herself, and headed outside to go to the Arcaneum. After some walking she arrived at the door to it. She opened it, walked through, and looked around to find this Urag fellow, whose name betrayed his orcish origins. As she walked along, hoping that the agent wasn't here, she heard a shrill, cold voice call out to her. "You there, I have questions for you!"

She stopped, her heart beginning to pound heavily and more rapidly. Here was the first Thalmor she was about to speak to in a long time – and not on the battlefield. She braced herself, and turned slowly to meet the incoming footsteps.

Nadiya looked to see the agent, tall and imposing with his sharp features and grim look; his Thalmor robes alone made her uncomfortable. Ancano certainly seemed to be the right person for the job if looks were any indication of one's capability. Then again, people often underestimate Nadiya. Her young, attractive looks led many to assume that she was the unassuming daughter of a noble, or something similar. On the battlefield, this could not be further from the truth.

Before Nadiya could ask what he wanted, Ancano looked at her with his piercing eyes and started, "You were in Saarthal, yes? It has come to my attention that something has been found there."

Nadiya was taken away at his brazen questioning, and stood there paralyzed with anxiety. Unable to think of an appropriate response, she simply said, "Maybe…"

At this, Ancano's grim look turned into an arrogant sneer and he responded, "I know full well that you all have. Please, do not insult my intelligence." He then moved closer to her, making Nadiya's discomfort more visible. At this, the agent chuckled. He bent down to move his face close to hers and said, "I will get to the bottom of this. No matter what you try and hide, you cannot keep it hidden away from me for long, especially if it's as important as how you and the others have reacted to my questions. I will find that out and see if you have anything else to hide. Something very important has happened during your time in Saarthal, enough for Tolfdir to send you and your fellow students alone back here to inform the Archmage. I will be expecting a full report from Tolfdir when he returns. Until we meet again, apprentice." With that said, he turned on his heel and walked off to leave the Arcaneum, hands behind his back and scheming about things, while Nadiya stood there dumbly and took what he said into consideration.

Despite their "talk" being less than a minute long, Nadiya was shaken. She's lucky that he had no idea who she is or what she has done back in the Great War, but the fact he'll be investigating her means that perhaps her true identity and background may be exposed. Knowing how extensive the Thalmor like to conduct their investigations, her being identified was now only a matter of time. How stupid of her and the twins to not use the false names they had chosen for themselves back in Windhelm! They should have expected this.

What now? She was sure the twins will be safe since they had not involved themselves in military affairs extensively. They were never caught by the Thalmor when they were part of those partisan groups, and she doubted their actions were ever properly documented by the Thalmor. As for herself though, being the slave of one of the most notorious Justiciars as well being a witness to the atrocities that he and his forces committed would have been noted down. And since she killed such an infamous member of the Thalmor, she would have been marked as a target of great importance. It may be a couple of decades after the War, and she felt it unlikely that anyone in the Dominion would recognize her personally after such a long time and believe that she has the same looks as back then thanks to her vampiric state, but the risk of staying in the College was too great now. If they figured out who she was, then the results would be less than optimal and her plans would be put in jeopardy, not to mention that the others in the College could be put into danger.

She could simply kill Ancano and be done worrying about him. But Nadiya knew the time was not right for him to be disposed of, because if he stopped sending his reports as she knows the Thalmor likes to do then the Dominion would investigate and send even more agents. And Nadiya, although only being in the College for a few days, already has too much respect for the members of the College to risk endangering them all. And so soon, after she had found the twins a new home and just after arriving. No, there was only one logical thing to do.

Nadiya would have to leave. And this time she'll have to head out alone. But where to, and how far? To the ends of Skyrim? Perhaps. Beyond? Probably not, she wanted to stay in this province if she could help it. She had only just arrived, and there was a lot of work that needs to be done. It was just a matter of finding out what she could do in the first place.

"Hey, did a book have too many big words for you and knocked you senseless?" asked a very gruff orcish voice. Nadiya snapped back to reality and turned to face the large, powerful orc wearing glasses with lenses that magnified his eyes to hilarious proportions. "Or are you astounded by the amount of books in here?"

"What? No, not at all. I'm just thinking about something important, that's all sir," she responded quickly.

"Hmmm. Something about that Ancano fellow I take it? Ah, you don't have to answer, you look like you have a lot on your mind already. Did you need something here?"

"Yes, I did. I was wondering if you have any books that could help us identify the thing that was found in Saarthal."

"Ah, yes. I know what you seek. Unfortunately for you, the books you need were stolen by this other apprentice not too long ago. For what reason, I don't know."

"Stolen? How so?"

"I said I don't know. And unfortunately I don't know exactly where he could be heading, so my guess is as good as yours. If I were you, I'd start looking in places where there are known to be rogue witches, sorcerers, the like. They can be found all over Skyrim, at least in places that aren't so full of snow such as Winterhold. No, you'd have to look in west to central Skyrim. Of course, you wouldn't be the only ones looking for them. I already have a few mages out and about looking for them. Skyrim is a large province, so I haven't received word from them yet. If you want to help, go out and explore."

Explore. That's it. She can use the excuse of looking for the books to leave the College. And at the same time, she can find other guilds to sway to her cause of war and liberation against the Thalmor and the Dominion. This way, even when Ancano finds out who she is, she'll be somewhere else, likely far away from him. But also far from her friends, old and new, and far from this grand new home known as the College of Winterhold. When safety was on the line though, she knew that she would have to take the appropriate action.

"Alright then. Can you at least give me a rundown of the places where you believe the books could be taken to?"

"Here, I'll mark it on your map. Nice map by the way, very detailed."

"Thank you. It was a great improvement from the old one."

After she had gotten the list of places, she left and went to find Mirabelle to inform her that she would be taking an extended leave of absence to assist Urag in his search. The Master Wizard took note, and then wished her luck. Nadiya then sought out Tolfdir and informed him of her decision, and the elderly wizard gave her his approval, telling her to be safe. After these exchanges, Nadiya went back to her quarters. She changed into her coven apparel and started to pack her things when she heard the others walk into the Hall. She mentally braced herself and walked outside her room to greet them, keeping as much of a straight face as she could.

"Nadiya, there you are! We were wondering where you had gone," said Onmund as he and the others turned their attention to her. "Just so you know, none of us let that agent get anything out of us." The others all nodded in agreement, and when Nadiya didn't respond immediately they knew something was wrong. "Everything alright Nadiya?" asked Kamilia.

Nadiya sighed and started, "Not really, no. When Ancano spoke to me he swore that he'll find out what's been found in Saarthal, as well as the importance of the orb. But not just that, he also implied that he'll investigate me and my background. Milana, Kamilia, you know how extensive the Thalmor like to be in their searches. We didn't give false names like we did in Windhelm, so I'm sure he'll figure out pretty quickly who I am. You two will be fine since you've were never caught by the Thalmor, and I'm sure they would have no idea who you are. You two should stay here and finish your lessons at the very least. Me, I'm much more worried. I was a high-priority target during the War, and if the Thalmor caught word of me here we'll all be in trouble. What I'm telling you all is that I need to leave, and as soon as possible. I've talked to Urag and he said he could use some help trying to find books that could help us understand the orb found in Saarthal, so I will be doing that and other things as well. I'm sorry for this very sudden turn of events, but I hope you all can understand."

The others stood shocked, unable to comprehend that their friend was about to leave so suddenly. Brelyna then spoke up after a few moments, saying, "Nadiya, do you really need to leave? What did you do back then to make them want to hunt you down?"

Nadiya looked at her sadly and said, "Yes. And what didn't I do to them and their minions? I won't tell you the full details, but I'll let you know this, and you two as well Onmund, J'Zargo: I was once captured by them, and enslaved by one of their chief Justiciars. I eventually killed him, and became a fugitive on the run. It's been some time since that happened, but the last I knew there was a great bounty on my head. So that's why I need to leave, before Ancano finds out."

Kamilia started to tear up, and Milana tried to keep a straight face with increasingly difficulty. "Nadiya, where will you go? Are you not coming back here?" asked a saddened Milana.

"I don't know exactly where yet. I think I might head westward, but only to explore the places that Urag told me about. And I will come back, but I don't think I'll be back for a long while, as long as the agent is still here. This doesn't mean I won't send letters, or that you guys can't visit me wherever I end up. We'll just have to be smart about things and throw the Thalmor off my trail if they get a hint of me."

There was silence for a moment until Kamilia said, "Oh Nadiya! Can we not just get rid of Ancano and not have to worry about you leaving?"

Nadiya turned to her and said, "Believe me, that's the first thing I thought of. But if that happens the Thalmor will investigate, and who knows what will happen to everyone here? No, I have to go. Once you two, and you three as well, finish your lessons, you all can join me wherever I am. Of course this is a pretty tall order and you all would probably have to travel far to meet me once again, so if you all would much rather stay here then I don't blame any of you in the slightest."

Realizing that there was no dissuading her, Kamilia rushed over to embrace Nadiya, then Milana followed shortly thereafter. Brelyna, Onmund, and J'Zargo stood around awkwardly for a moment before Nadiya said, "You guys join in, we're all friends here, even if you three only knew me for a couple of days." The three looked at each other before walking over and joining the group hug.

This was the first time in a while that Nadiya felt legitimately loved, and she knew she would miss them dearly. If only it weren't for the damned Thalmor being everywhere, then she would stay. But alas, the Divines must have other plans for her.

First the delayed shipment that was rerouted into Skyrim, then the meeting with the Psijics, the mysterious wall, and now her necessary departure among other things. These turn of events seem too coincidental for Nadiya to ignore now. Religion never played a major role in her life although she did pay her respects to the Divines out of tradition. However, the past couple of weeks or so since waking up has caused her to rethink her beliefs somewhat. She still wasn't sure if she wanted to become more actively religious, but she was certain that she should be more aware of religious persecution. After all, what will really stop the Thalmor from whisking people away off into the night for their beliefs? Only the actions of those willing to fight against such tyranny.

After helping her pack, the five walked with Nadiya out of the College to the carriage, where they all helped to either sell the excess supplies, take them back to the quarters, or let Nadiya take for herself. Of the gold gained from selling supplies, most of it was given to Nadiya since the others reasoned that she would need it more. Nadiya then took one of the horses, the black one she named Windbreaker, and secured her packs, making sure that she had all the adequate equipment and supplies necessary to survive in the tundra. She especially made sure that she carried enough blood, for she was unsure if she'd be able to restock on that often. Besides her ebony waraxe, she packed her old battlemage gear, a beautiful elven longbow she had taken from a Thalmor archer back in the War, a couple of daggers and swords, and some casual clothing. Then, after final words and embracing each person one last time, she clasped on her cloak, mounted Windbreaker, and sped off into the tundra, the sun shining brightly over the blinding snow.

The remaining five watched her leave sadly; though none of them wanted her to leave, this was all for the best, especially when knowing what awaited them all if she remained. Brelyna, Onmund, and J'Zargo left after a few minutes to head back to the College. Milana and Kamilia stayed for a while longer until their friend was fully out of sight, and then started to head back, knowing that it would be a long while until they see their dear friend once more. Wherever she was headed, they hoped that she would find good fortune and remain safe.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this work, the Elder Scrolls series belongs to Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks

From the marks on the map that Urag had indicated, it was indicated that most of the possible locations for the books were in central Skyrim within Whiterun Hold. However, she decided on visiting the capital of Skyrim, Solitude, chiefly in order to gain insight into the dynamics of the relations between the Empire and the Dominion. Not only that, she could possibly see Tullius as well, having not seen him since before the beginning of the War. Him being a general now was a good sign for the Legion, as she could attest to his great leadership skills. That the Thalmor headquarters were close to Solitude made her uncomfortable, but she could modify her masking spell to make herself nearly unrecognizable for a day or so, which she will likely be doing anyways. Thus she began her journey by heading towards Solitude, with scheduled stops in Dawnstar and Morthal to rest and resupply.

As she followed the road she and the twins had taken to get to the College, she wondered how the others would fare in their magical instruction, and if Ancano would put them under the same scrutiny as her. She hoped that he would be too distracted by the orb and other things to focus his attention on the apprentices, and Nadiya had faith that the mages there would not let Ancano look too deep into that.

The road she took winded back down south towards Windhelm, and then west along the river, then north towards Dawnstar. From Dawnstar she would head west once more towards Morthal, and then west until she reached a village called Dragon Bridge, and then finally north to Solitude. In total the journey would take at most a month, taking into account things such as snowstorms, town stops, and the unexpected.

It took her about five days to reach Windhelm, where she spent a night and resupplied, as well as nimbly refilling her blood supply by way of an unsuspecting Stormcloak. The man would live, although he would be greatly fatigued for a week or so. After Windhelm she then departed for Dawnstar. This journey was not easy as several snowstorms came up, and she once had to spend two days in one of the many villages located throughout Skyrim. In addition, although the creatures that attacked her were easy to ward off, these attacks were more numerous and desperate than on the journey to Winterhold. A few times she would urge Windbreaker to simply gallop as swiftly as possible in the face of foes such as snow bears. There was the rare bandit attack, but such skirmishes were easy to handle for her. After twelve days, she finally arrived at Dawnstar in the afternoon, her coven apparel and waraxe battered and halfway out of her supplies, as well as suffering from fatigue after spending the past couple of nights camping in the tundra, which was quite the experience.

Upon her arrival in the city she immediately noticed how restless the citizens of Dawnstar seemed to be, literally. Many were shambling around doing their work shoddily, and a few were sitting around trying to stop themselves from falling asleep. Curious, she tied her horse next to the inn and walked over to the blacksmith. As she got close to the building, she approached a man and a woman hammering away at armor and weapons, albeit with little productivity. Hmmm, I should ask them and see what is going on, Nadiya thought to herself. Hopefully they're coherent enough to fix my gear.

"Hello there. Are you two able to repair my equipment?" she asked them. The man said, "Dear, could you help her out? I'm trying to make sure I get this sword straightened out correctly." The woman stood up and said, "Alright. Just take your time, I don't want you to slip again." The man tiredly laughed in response, and then lightly groaned at his lack of sleep. The woman then turned to Nadiya and tiredly said, "Good day. Yes, we can do that, but unfortunately it might take a little longer than you might want. You see, we all have been having these terrible nightmares, everyone in town. Fortunately for you the nightmares don't seem to affect travelers, so you can stay for a while. Although I wouldn't recommend it just to be safe."

Taken aback at these unusual news, Nadiya handed her the gear to be fixed and responded, "That sounds terrible! Do you know why this is?"

"No one knows really. Although there's this priest of Mara that came into town the other day who claims to know why. He's been asking for help, but unfortunately no one here is really in any shape to do so, and travelers have been shying away from helping us."

"Then I'll see what I can do. I wouldn't want people to get hurt by this lack of sleep."

This time it was the woman who was surprised. "You'd do that out of the goodness of your heart? That's very kind of you. That kind of goodwill is not something you see often in Skyrim anymore. Ever since I came here, people have been becoming more and more dim. Probably because of the civil war going on, but that's not the only thing here."

"I'm just doing my best to make sure that people can live without fear and dread of the days to come. A lofty goal, but even making one person's outlook a little brighter is good enough for me."

The woman looked at her with warm eyes and smiled. "That's the kind of optimism I want to see again. Maybe one day the rest of Tamriel will follow your example. Anyways, the priest is in the inn just over there. His name is Erandur, a Dunmer man and very devoted to Mara. Hopefully you two can figure out how to stop these nightmares. Oh, and my name is Seren, and my husband over there is Rustleif. We'll have your gear ready as soon as we can, most likely by tomorrow morning."

After introducing herself as Maria, Nadiya thanked her and paid Seren the desired amount of gold. She then went over to her horse, quickly changed into some casual clothing and put her College robes over them, grabbed a sword and a dagger, and then walked over to the inn.

When she walked inside, she could tell that Seren was right about the townsfolk being sleep-deprived. The local bard looked frazzled, strumming her instrument slowly, and not singing any ballads. The innkeeper was keeping his head down, occasionally looking up to try and stay awake. The other patrons within were drowning their sorrows away, trying not to give into the temptation. The only person that seemed fully coherent was the Dunmer man Nadiya assumed to be Erandur, who was going around and trying to persuade people to follow him to deal with the threat. As she approached, the priest took notice and upon seeing her clearly not afflicted by the nightmares stood up straight and walked forward to greet her.

"Hello there. You must be a traveler since you don't seem to be affected by what's going on in this city," he started.

"I am. I was wondering if you knew exactly what was going on here?"

"The entire town is being plagued by horrible nightmares. They're in serious danger, but I'm afraid there is little I can do about it."

"Really? Why not?"

Erandur looked at her grimly and said, "These dreams are manifestations created by the Daedric Lord Vaermina. She has an awful hunger for our memories. In return, she leaves behind nightmares, not unlike a cough marks a serious illness. I must end her terrible influence upon these people before the damage becomes permanent."

A Daedric Lord. Of all the things that had to cause trouble around here, it had to be one of those entities. Nadiya had some knowledge about the mysterious Lords that ruled their own realms in Oblivion, and everything that she had read on them had suggested that it was best never to tangle with these powerful entities. If she did, there might be dire consequences down the line for her.

But the people here mattered to her. True, she had just walked into town not even an hour ago, but no innocents deserve to be the victims of some malevolent entity hailing from beyond the world. It was unfair to these people who were just trying to make their way in this harsh land. And this man was willing to help. His resolve strengthened her own.

"Oh. This is much more than I expected. Can you at least tell me more about her?"

"Absolutely. Vaermina resides in a strange realm know as Quagmire… a nightmarish realm where reality shifts upon itself in seemingly impossible ways. From her citadel at the center, she reaches forth to collect our memories, leaving nothing in return apart from visions of horror and despair."

"Wow. Any idea what she does with them?"

"Who can say? Perhaps she collects them for display like works of art in a nonsensical art gallery. Whatever the case may be, her intentions are far from benevolent."

"Alright then. How do you intend to resolve this then?"

"I need to return to the source of the problem, to Nightcaller Temple. Perhaps you'd be willing to assist me in that regard?"

"Wait, what do you mean return?"

At this, Erandur grew uneasy and resumed in a lower voice. "I've already said too much. If anyone overhears what we're saying, it could start a panic. I would simply ask that you trust me and help me end Dawnstar's nightmares. Luckily, everyone here seems to be too preoccupied with the nightmares, so it looks like we're fine for now."

Nadiya stood up a little straighter and said firmly, "I'm willing to help. Just let me know what needs to be done."

Erandur grew relieved at once and said, "Mara be praised! Nightcaller Temple is only a short walk from Dawnstar. Come, we must hurry."

After making sure that they all had their things in order, they left the inn and immediately set out for the Temple. As they walked along, they wrapped their cloaks around themselves tightly and began the trek up the steep hill to the Temple. Along the way, they made formal introductions and Erandur started to give Nadiya a lecture on some history to the Temple, how it was originally dedicated to another deity before being taken over by followers of Vaermina. When they were within several hundred meters of the Temple, they fought off a couple of marauding snow trolls which were no easy foes. Luckily the worst they suffered was getting tossed around a bit, and such minor injuries were nothing some healing magic couldn't rectify with ease. Nadiya had to summon a couple of flame atronarchs in order to defeat them, and in total the skirmish lasted several minutes. After catching their breaths, both Nadiya and Erandur prepared to enter the Temple, but not before Erandur informed her about the Miasma within and how it was used to put invading orcs who were having nightmares similar to the people of Dawnstar to sleep, since the followers stood no chance against a horde of enraged orcs; a side-effect of this was that the followers of Vaermina were also put to sleep. Erandur also voiced his concern about the possibility of the sleepers within being disturbed. They would likely wake up and attack them, as Erandur told her that the longer one slept under the effects of the Miasma, the more likely it was for them to have simply lost their minds and attack the first things they see once awake. Now aware of the dangers they faced, they entered the Temple.

As they made their way inside and through the Temple, Erandur's suspicions were proven correct as they had to fight off several awakened orcs and followers. After some time going down the main stairwell, they emerged onto a landing that offered a good vantage point allowing them to see the source of Dawnstar's woes, the Skull of Corruption, which Erandur told her must be destroyed. Despite her distaste for the object for adversely affecting innocents, she couldn't help but be intrigued by the staff. After all, being able to see a Daedric artifact in person was an experience in of itself, according to the books she had read on the artifacts as well as her own experience right now. If there were some way to claim it without much trouble, then perhaps she would be tempted to take it for herself. To defeat the Thalmor, she might have to resort to unsavory methods. After all, no war is won without some injustice.

As they continued down the stairwell, they came upon an impassible magical barrier that Erandur had no idea how to bypass. After some deliberation he decided to check the library for clues in how to bypass it. The way he talked about it made Nadiya suspicious, and when she questioned him about his familiarity with the place the priest of Mara revealed that he was once a priest of Vaermina, hence his knowledge of this ancient temple and its most recent tenants. He did promise her that he was reformed, and Nadiya had no other choice but to follow him, hoping in the meantime that he was telling the truth.

Quite some time later they managed to bypass the barrier which involved the use of an esoteric potion and the willingness to traverse the unknown on the part of Nadiya. After they fought their way through more of the maddened sleepers, they finally came upon the chamber where the Skull was stored. There they defeated two of Erandur's old, awakened comrades, furious at him for his betrayal of their dastardly order. After eliminating them, Erandur stepped forward to begin the ritual to banish the artifact back to Oblivion, asking Nadiya to watch out for anything that might try and stop them. As she observed him undertake the ritual, she walked forward to examine the Skull for herself.

It was a dreadful thing, radiating with intense, negative energy. From what Erandur told her, it apparently fed off dreams in order it to be able to function as a kind of weapon. It also was reputed to be able to duplicate a target so that the duplicate may to attempt to kill the original being. The Skull itself was propped up by a pole, making it very similar to a staff in appearance. In its functionality it operated like one as well. Of all of the Daedric artifacts, the Skull of Corruption was one of those she knew little about, not that she was familiar with the other artifacts in the first place. Even though she knew little about the artifacts, there was one common trait she knew they all shared: that each artifact was an extension of their patron Lord, and that they were immensely powerful and downright impossible to physically destroy.

As she looked onwards, Nadiya turned to Erandur and saw that he was struggling to complete the ritual. He was succeeding slowly though, and his determination to banish the artifact was admirable to her. She was wondering how long it would take for the ritual to be complete when suddenly a feminine voice spoke to her, most certainly not her own.

"He's deceiving you."

Nadiya whirled around, looking for the source of the voice but saw nothing. Erandur didn't seem to have heard anything, which quipped Nadiya's curiosity and made her wonder if she was going mad. First the Psijic apparitions, then the chanting wall that only she could hear, and now this incorporeal voice. After a few moments of trying to figure out where it was coming from, the voice returned.

"When the ritual's complete, the Skull will be free and then Erandur will turn on you."

She still wasn't sure if was going mad. However, she now had a new concern. Nadiya hadn't taken into consideration the possibility of the priest turning on her. After all, Erandur was in town for longer than she was, and despite him not showing any signs of corruption, the chance that he himself was under the influence of the daedra does exist. Who knows if this self-proclaimed priest of Mara was honest? No one ever reveals their full self to anyone, especially not to a stranger they just met.

Wait. What was she thinking? They had come this far without him showing signs of ulterior motives. Sure, the possibility that he might turn on her does exist, but for that to happen he would have indicated odd behavior a while ago, or she would have sensed something amiss. Her vampiric abilities were sharp enough to detect any major changes in behavior and demeanor. They weren't exactly precise and so fine, but she was taught well by the coven. She would have known something was wrong.

Were… were her thoughts actually influenced by Vaermina herself? There was no other way for her to suspect Erandur of wrongdoing. If the Daedric Lords could exert such influence on someone from an entirely separate realm of existence, then she must tread much more carefully. She had read and heard stories of the power of the Lords due in no small part to her research back in the College of Whispers, but to witness and feel their actions and effects firsthand will cause even the staunchest of atheists to waver in their disbelief.

"Quickly! Kill him now. Kill him and claim the Skull for your own! Vaermina commands you!"

If there were any doubts about her being influenced, they were all now erased. Nadiya had to remain resolute and stoic in the face of Vaermina. This Lord wasn't the most powerful of them all, but she was still many times stronger than her. She had to focus. If Nadiya slipped, then the ritual could backfire with terrible consequences.

"If you stop him, I can show you your destiny. I know what you are Nadiya Atreides, and I know what you must do in the future to save the realm. If you kill him, I will reveal this all to you, and how to accomplish this. Is this not what you want? Don't you want to know how to defeat the vile Thalmor? Be my champion Dovahkiin!"

Gods. This was worse than she imagined. Vaermina could read her thoughts as well. The temptation to give in was nauseating. And it was working, slowly but surely.

But how could the Lord know of her future? Vaermina ruled over dreams. Azura was the Lord who had presided over fate and destiny. Vaermina might have the power over dreams, but destiny was not something that was correlated with dreams, at least generally speaking and to her knowledge. As a result, Nadiya could only conclude that the Daedric Prince was bluffing for sake of keeping the artifact on Nirn.

Then again, Vaermina could be telling the truth. The knowledge the Daedric Lords possessed was incredibly extensive and they weren't liars. At least she thinks so. Some were certainly prone to deception, especially Clavicus Vile. But as for lying, she wasn't so sure since she needs to brush up on that kind of information. She was sure about the depths of their knowledge though, and from what she remembers the Lord Hermaeus Mora supposedly has infinite libraries full of books both common and unique. She would like to talk to that Lord, but of course the danger was great as is the case whenever one deals with a Daedric Lord.

Perhaps being her champion is a good idea. What was the name she called her by though? Dovahkiin? Nadiya would have to ask Vaermina what that means once she deals with Erandur. She assumed that was what the Daedric Lord referred her champions as.

No. She should not give in. Nadiya's destiny is something she deeply desired to know and understand, but is it worth knowing at the cost of the lives of others? Especially the lives of those trying to make the world a better place for others? No. Giving in would make her as bad as the Thalmor. And the last thing she wanted to do was to stoop to their level. Sure, she wanted to destroy them at all costs, but she will do so with dignity. Whatever that even means anymore.

She continued to resist the temptation to give in for what seemed to be like ages. Vaermina continued to goad her to strike Erandur down, and as time went by Nadiya became more and more susceptible to the power and influence of the Daedric Lord. Her thoughts became clouded, and her vision tunneled. The power of the Prince was great, and Nadiya was regretting that she joined the Dunmer on this foolhardy venture. He should pay the price for… no. She cannot, should not give in. But why should she not? For one thing, he fooled the people of Dawnstar. It's not as if they would care if… NO!

Thoughts became a whirlwind of emotions, becoming intertwined with that of images and sounds from other souls around Tamriel. At once Nadiya was angry, happy, indifferent, maniacal, fearful. The voice of Lord Vaermina had now become a force, and although Nadiya was putting up strong mental blocks that withstood the attacks better than anyone could have save for those grand masters of magic, they were being undone at an increasingly rapid pace. She might have been taught by the best the Empire had to offer, but fighting against the influence of a Daedric Lord was something that she had never been taught how to resist against by the Imperials. Nadiya knew it was possible for those with the proper training and in possession of incredible strength and willpower to raise the kind of mental barriers to resist the influence of Daedric entities effectively, but alas she never had the chance to learn such things since no one she had known back in Cyrodiil had that sort of knowledge. She certainly had the willpower and strength, but the training was missing and this was very quickly proving to be her downfall.

Finally, just as Nadiya put her hand on the hilt of her sword and was close to drawing it out, there was a flash of light and she instinctively shut her eyes. When she opened them, she saw the artifact gone, Erandur panting deeply, and the force gone from her mind. She was free from the Daedra's influence at last, her thoughts clear of all intruders. Nadiya had no idea if she had made an enemy of Vaermina, but truthfully she didn't want to know. She had a bounty on her by the Thalmor before and that was already very discomforting. Having the equivalent of one placed on her by an entity such as Vaermina was something she wanted to avoid at all costs, and she sorely hoped that this wasn't the case here.

She walked slowly over to the priest, ready for anything. Although she believed he was sincere, Vaermina's words have made her cautious. She waited for him to collect himself, and after a few moments he looked up and said, "It is finished then. I have to thank you for being able to help not only me but the people of Dawnstar as well. The nightmares should be gone, and life should resume as normal. Did anything happen while I was completing the ritual?"

Nadiya started, "Oh yeah. A voice started to speak to me, claiming to be Vaermina. Did you hear it too?"

Erandur's eyes opened widely. "No, I didn't! What did she tell you?"

She awkwardly cleared her throat and continued, "She ah, she basically told me to kill you and take the artifact for myself. At first I was able to keep her voice out of my head, but then she turned into this nearly unstoppable force. I actually have to thank you for being able to banish the damned thing on time because… well, that doesn't need to be said out loud. I hope this doesn't alarm you too much. I mean, it wasn't me that was about to strike at you."

"Wow. That's very concerning, but I must admit that I am most intrigued by this! Vaermina, and for that matter the other Daedric Lords only ever directly speak with those whom they feel are worthy and are capable of accomplishing the most difficult of tasks. They are always on the lookout for individuals that could serve as their champions and carry out their will. Did she say anything else?"

"She did say that she knows my destiny, and what I will do. Is there any truth to this kind of talk?"

"Hmmm. Although she is not a benevolent Lord by any stretch of the imagination, I never knew her to be deceitful, both in my observations and in my studies. This is very interesting indeed. That's all she said to you?"

"No. She called me something else other than my name, which she knew. That was very odd. I don't remember how to pronounce it, but it was something like, davahkan, or dovkin? I'm sorry, I don't remember exactly. Those words strike a bell to you? Is it a title Vaermina gives to her champions?"

"Unfortunately those words don't sound anything I've heard before. It's certainly not a term that Vaermina uses from what I remember about my time in the cult. Now that I think about it, it does sound Nordic in origin. Perhaps you could check with the College of Winterhold if you're very much intent on finding this out. Hopefully you can figure this out. Anyways, once again you have my greatest gratitude. You know, I was intending on staying in this Temple in order to turn it into a kind of shrine to Mara, as well as attending to the people of Dawnstar whenever they need help, but I will make you this offer: I am willing to travel with you, should you have the need for a companion. Let me know whenever you need me to follow, and I will protect you and help you in your journey, wherever the roads take you. It's the least I can do after you helped the people of Dawnstar."

"Oh! That is very kind of you to offer. For now, I need to travel alone but I believe in the future I will likely require your aid. When that happens, I will either return to you in person or I will have a courier come to you. Thank you for offering your services, and I am glad to help Dawnstar be rid of the influence of Vaermina."

"You are very welcome Maria. As I said, this is the least I can do to thank you. How about we go back to Dawnstar? I do need to fetch some supplies, and I should see if there's anyone in need of help, since expunging Vaermina's influence can take a toll on one."

"Sure. Let's head out then. Also, you may call me Nadiya. I'll explain when we get back."

After gathering their things and making sure they had retrieved anything worth taking, they began to walk up the long, winding stairs, and once they reached the entrance they fastened their cloaks and packs tightly before setting out into the night, with an uneven snowstorm harrying them. As they were setting out, Nadiya thought she heard a whisper in the wind, similar to that of Vaermina. She tried to listen in more closely, but after a few moments nothing more happened. She shrugged and hurried to catch up with Erandur, who had paused to see what his friend was up to.

It was past midnight when they finally returned to Dawnstar. As they walked towards the inn for a place to spend the night, Erandur notified Nadiya about how the town seemed significantly more peaceful now. When they entered the inn, they noticed that everyone was sleeping soundly, even the innkeeper and the bard, sleeping at chairs at the bar and a table respectively. They looked at each other and shrugged, put down gold for one room for a single night each, and then found a couple of empty rooms to get settled in. After they washed up and Nadiya checked on Windbreaker, they changed into their night attire and went to sleep.

In the morning, they had breakfast and talked with some of the well-rested townsfolk about what had happened, giving an edited version of their experiences in the Temple in order to not further alarm the citizens and to hide Erandur's previous affiliation with Vaermina. The people cheered for them and collectively took them to see the Jarl despite Nadiya's protests. At the Hall of the Jarl, he soundly congratulated them for solving the mystery of the nightmares as well as dealing with the maddened inhabitants of the temple. He awarded both Erandur and Nadiya with a thousand pieces of gold each and offered to initiate them both as Stormcloaks. They both declined, Erandur citing his work as a priest as his excuse while Nadiya informed the Jarl of her lack of interest in the Stormcloak cause. The Jarl appeared disappointed but acknowledged their decisions, though not without a bit more fuss.

After this business was concluded, Nadiya went to pick up her gear from a well-rested Seren and Rustleif. After getting their thanks and the couple returning her gold as gratitude, she decided to spend this day and the next in Dawnstar to explore a bit and to gather her strength for the next leg of the journey. Over the next couple of days, she observed the dynamics of the city, met more people, and even ventured out to the tundra for a bit, though she turned back after a short time on account of bears and trolls. She also spent time talking with Erandur about his travels and what to expect and watch out for in Skyrim. By the third day she was ready to leave, and she had gathered all that she needed to get to Morthal. After saying their farewells to one another, Nadiya parted from Erandur and she went to her horse, changed into her coven apparel, and mounted Windbreaker to begin her journey to Morthal, the next stop on her trip to Solitude.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this work, the Elder Scrolls series belongs to Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks

This leg of the journey to Solitude took about a week. The snowstorms grew in intensity and lasted for longer periods of time. There was a lack of bandits luckily, but the amount of hungry predators did increase. Nadiya had to resort to summoning a couple of flame thralls all the way to Morthal in order to stave off roaming wolf-packs and the occasional bears and saber-toothed cats. She was running low on supplies by the time she and Windbreaker trudged into the swampy town of Morthal late in the morning, though thankfully her gear was not as damaged compared to her trip from Winterhold to Dawnstar. She dismounted and led Windbreaker across town to what appeared to be the inn, passing by some fairly loud protesters arguing with some guards and officials. This sight was to Nadiya's interest, but she needed to purchase new supplies first, not to mention finding some more blood. She managed stock up well on the latter in the Temple when Erandur wasn't looking, but she lost one canteen to a saber-toothed cat that got too close, and as a result she was shorter on blood than she liked to be. She had to find a way to draw blood discreetly, and without much fuss. After handing her horse to the care of a stable keeper stationed next to the inn and paying him off, she took her pack, tugged her cloak and hood a little more closely to herself, and tweaked her masking spell to modify her looks slightly. And so, Nadiya's day began. Unknown to her at the moment, it was to be quite the adventure.

After purchasing some potions and selling some various artifacts she had found on her journey at a local store, she headed to the inn and went inside to get food and her bearings. As she approached the innkeeper, the woman regarded Nadiya with some surprise and said, "It's not often that travelers come to Morthal. It's a welcome sight when one does though."

"Not often? Why is that?"

"Well, business was slow even before the war started. And now? Let's just say the front door doesn't get used much."

"I see. I'd like to order some food please."

After getting some food and drink, the inn stood quietly for a time other than the odd orc in his own corner, humming a soft tune to himself. A few minutes after having started her meal, Nadiya turned and asked the innkeeper, "When I came into town today, I noticed that there was quite the commotion outside the jarl's longhouse. Do you know what's that about?"

"Oh, that. Yes, very recently a fire burned down one of the houses in town which killed two people, the wife and daughter of Hroggar who is the only survivor of the family. What's really interesting about this is that Hroggar immediately went to go live with Alva, one of the other townsfolk here, after all was said and done, and because of this many are guessing that Hroggar had something to do with the deaths of his wife and daughter. No one has come out with any hard proof that he did it, but I believe that he had a role in this whole affair."

"Interesting. What else do you know about what happened?"

"Other than that, nobody really knows where to start looking since the fire destroyed any hard proof as far as we know. Why, did you want to join the investigation?"

"Possibly. I have this penchant for helping people out."

"Huh. I imagine for some coin at the end?"

"Well, rewards are always welcome."

"Figures. You seem to be quite the adventurer, seeing the way you're dressed and armed. If you want to help, I suggest that you go see the Jarl. She'll want to know who's helping to solve this mystery. And if you want to poke around in the ashes, feel free. The Jarl's guards would appreciate extra help."

"Alright. Perhaps I'll see your Jarl first then."

After this exchange, Nadiya finished her meal and paid the innkeeper some gold. She then gathered her things together and walked outside, light snow starting to fall across town. The Breton made her way to the nearby Hall, and after getting cleared by the guards stationed in front, she walked inside, careful to stamp her feet on a nearby rug to get rid of the dirt that had gathered on her shoes. Nadiya looked up and across the Hall to see an elderly woman sitting on a rather plain throne, talking to a nearby man. Besides the two were several servants maintaining the Hall and several guards standing around different doorways. She started to walk to the woman on the throne, presumably the Jarl, and once she was a respectable distance away from the two she stopped and patiently waited for them to finish their talk.

The Jarl continued to talk with the man for some time about the issues that faced her city, as well as the ongoing rebellion that was taking its toll on the province. After a few minutes they concluded their discussion and they turned towards their visitor, the man stepping forward to address Nadiya. "Good day traveler. How can we help you?"

"Hello. My name is Maria and I was passing by when I noticed a bit of commotion outside your Hall earlier, as well as a burned-down house when I was heading to the inn. The innkeeper told me that you all were looking for help into solving this mystery? Something about a fire?"

The Jarl raised an eyebrow, intrigued at this traveler and her curiosity. Before the man could respond she started, "Hroggar's house fire? He lost his wife and daughter in the blaze. My people believe it to be cursed now. Who am I to gainsay them?"

"Interesting. What did Hroggar say about the fire?"

"Hroggar blames his wife for spilling bear fat in the fire. Many folks think he set the fire himself. For what reasons, I don't know. Any evidence that could have been found at the house burned up with the fire. I will tell you with certainty though that lust can make a man do the unthinkable. The ashes were still warm when he pledged himself to Alva." The Jarl paused, and added, "I'm sure you can connect the dots, given these very peculiar circumstances."

"Yeah, I see what you're getting at. But if this is all so clear then why not just arrest Hroggar and be done with the matter? Or at least take him in for questioning?"

"Arrest him on rumor and gossip? No. And even if I command the guards to take him in for questioning, I'm not sure the other townsfolk will take kindly to my orders, owing to their distrust of me. But you, a stranger, might find the truth for us. Sift through the ashes that others are too fearful to touch. See what they tell you. Should you prove him guilty or innocent, I will reward you."

"So quick to look for outside help, huh? Alright then, sounds good to me. Anything else you can tell me about this whole matter?"

"I will warn you, things aren't always what they appear to be. Advice you should keep in general, but I suspect this holds strongly in this case. Be careful with whatever you find and do."

Nadiya bowed her head towards the Jarl in acknowledgement, and she was turning around about to head outside when she noticed something very familiar to her. Through an open doorway just off to the side of the Hall was a weapons rack, and mounted upon it were swords and spears that were unmistakably forged by the Imperial Legion. Nadiya walked towards the doorway in curiosity, and when she passed by the guard standing by the doorway, nodding as she went in assuming she had business to attend to, she found herself looking at several Imperial Legionnaires standing around a table, with a Legate standing at the head giving his soldiers updates on Stormcloak activities. On the other end of the room was a large banner that bore the icon of the Imperial Legion, a blood-red dragon with its wings spanning up and down the length of the banner.

Nadiya's time in the Legion was something she cherished since she believed she was doing the right thing, but it was a darker time in her grim life. She had seen the worst of the Great War and had to make many difficult choices. Not to mention the killing. If Tolfdir knew how much havoc she had wrought upon the Dominion's soldiers, then he likely would have regarded her very differently. Thankfully she knows how to keep secrets, most of the time.

"Miss? Miss?" Nadiya snapped out of her reverie and realized that the Legionnaires were all looking at her with confusion, with the Legate addressing her directly. "I'm sorry, what?" she said quickly in response.

"Miss, we are in a restricted meeting. May I ask what business you have with us?"

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't realize, I'm in the wrong room anyways. I'll just be going now," she responded quickly with embarrassment. As she turned around to head back out, she felt the Legate giving her an annoyed look and heard him grumble about the brazenness of adventurers and the lack of decent manners and security in Skyrim before going back to the meeting.

After walking outside, she headed straight to the ruins of the house which wasn't far from the Hall itself. Although the snowfall had ceased since she had entered the Hall, there was a fair bit of snow that formed a layer of snow over the ruins. With little enthusiasm, she took a nearby shovel and started to clear as much snow as she could in order to make her search for evidence easier. By the time the early afternoon came about, she had cleared out much of the interior and Nadiya began to look around for clues.

As time went on, she became frustrated about the lack of anything noteworthy since whatever wasn't charred and burnt to ash was simply not relevant to her investigation, as what impeded the guards and their own investigation. As the day turned into the late afternoon, Nadiya groaned at her lack of progress and decided to resume her investigation the next day, and see what's going on around the town. She turned around to head towards the inn, and she found herself looking at the ghost of a small girl that was standing right behind her, with a curious look on her face.

Nadiya stared dumbfounded for a long moment, unable to process that a ghost was literally a couple of meters away from her. Sure, she had seen many odd and unexplained things in her lifetime. After all, she lives in a world where magic was the rule and the norm, and where many very interesting creatures and divine beasts reside. However, ghosts were not something that she had encountered before, and being confronted by one wasn't something she was expecting in this investigation.

After the ghost girl introduced herself as Helgi and the two made their acquaintances, the girl revealed that she knew who the perpetrator of the fire was and that she could help Nadiya find the suspect on the condition that she plays a game of hide and seek with her once the night arrived. Although this setback Nadiya's investigation due to her wanting to proceed with matters as quickly as possible, she had little choice since Helgi can lead her to the perpetrator, and because she also had sympathy for the little ghost girl wanting a friend to play a game with. Begrudgingly, she had halted her investigation and wait until nightfall. However, she did get some useful information out of Helgi before the girl disappeared to wait until dark, most notably that the suspect is female and might be a vampire as according to Helgi's description of events. If this were true, then she'll have to confront members of her own kind presumably with hostility, and Nadiya couldn't imagine things going well in this situation.

Vampires. The only other such undead Nadiya had known other than the twins were noble in image as is custom with Cyrodilic vampires, but nonetheless participated in malevolent activities dedicated to very particular daedra as with all vampires. In terms of worship Nadiya assumed that these vampires had similar rituals and traditions to those from Cyrodiil, but otherwise she could not imagine this other vampire being familiar in looks and lifestyle, owing to various factors that could be derived when examining the differences between this province and Cyrodiil. In this small, unremarkable capital of one of the lesser holds in Skyrim, Nadiya could expect any vampires that she'll encounter to be disheveled in looks and bestial in manners and actions, if what she's read about the vampires of Skyrim to be true in that book she got from the College. Hopefully she'll be able to put an end to this rogue before things get out of hand.

After departing the ruins, she looked up to the sky to see the sun fading off into the horizon, with the early evening about to settle in. Nadiya decided to stroll around town for a bit to sightsee and to take a little break before getting dinner, and then off to play Helgi's game. For Nadiya, it had been a long time since she had taken a leisurely stroll.

As Nadiya walked along, she passed by the occasional townsfolk and guard who either regarded her with mild wariness or ignored her. At this point the Breton had gotten used to such behavior, although she missed the openness that was innate to Cyrodiil. After some minutes she wound up at the edge of town, where beyond the lights and walls of Morthal stood imposing trees with their branches spreading over the swampy environment, and beyond those trees she could see a fog forming quite a distance away. She supposed that the swamp was interesting in a niche sort of way, but what surprised her was the lack of any Argonians in this town, whether it be visitors or residents. Then again, why anyone would want to come to this town for reasons other than business and passing by was beyond her, what with its lack of importance compared to the other capitals of Skyrim as according to a different book she had read in the College.

By this time nightfall was fast approaching and Nadiya decided to head back to the inn for dinner. Accordingly, the locals were starting to head back into their homes and the town guards began to patrol in pairs for safety. Although the night was an issue for mortals, Nadiya faced no such problem thanks to her ability to see through the dark as granted to her by the gift of vampirism. Despite this, she decided to cast a candlelight spell in order to blend in and not invite suspicion, a mistake that she had made before. As she came close to the entrance of the inn, she noticed a scantily-clad woman heading to the inn with a warmly-dressed man, the woman apparently having no trouble with the increasing lack of light and leading the man onwards. Nadiya regarded her without much thought until she realized that everyone else in town was either carrying a torch or lantern, and that this woman didn't seem to mind the increasing cold that was affecting her companion and the other townsfolk.

Nadiya instantly became suspicious. She decided to trail behind the pair for a moment, and as two walked up and the man opened the door to the inn for his partner, Nadiya very subtly cast a life detection spell. As she suspected, the woman failed to show up on Nadiya's senses while the man did so. This was without a doubt a vampire, possibly even the one behind the fire. Before entering the inn, she decided to wait outside for a moment to ponder her next step.

If this vampire was the one behind the fire, then taking care of her would be a relatively simple matter. All she would need to do is find evidence that she was the perpetrator and bring her to the jarl either dead or alive. On the other hand, if she was part of a vampire coven as Nadiya knows how vampires are wont to be, then the situation would become much more serious. She has no idea of their numbers, how powerful they would be, nor of their location. If there exists a coven, then Nadiya would need to recruit the local guards or even Legionnaires to assist in their destruction since she would be outnumbered first and foremost. She could only imagine the coven being up to nefarious deeds, and because they would be competition for her. In this case, there would certainly be casualties since she had a feeling that people in Morthal, even the guards and Legionnaires, don't have much if any experience fighting against undead such as vampires. To engage a Stormcloak or a bandit would be a relatively straightforward matter while a vampire would present a tricky challenge for anyone thanks to their abilities and powers. Many have underestimated vampires, and this cost them dearly.

Before anything else could occur, she had to figure out who this woman is and what she might be up to. She could be completely innocent and her presence among mortals could be attributed to sheer coincidence, unlikely considering the circumstances of the fire, but she had to investigate further in order to make a definitive judgement. Priming herself for whatever was to come next, she walked up to go inside the inn.

Upon entering she found that the inn was fairly populated and there was some activity going on all around. Here and there were some townsfolk and off-duty guards lounging around, the odd orc still present and singing a ballad objectively terribly, and the woman sitting with a man at a table by themselves, the man facing away from Nadiya and eating a meal with little fanfare while the woman sat facing towards the entrance, sipping on some kind of juice while observing the other patrons. As Nadiya glanced at her, the woman looked up and caught her eye. Nadiya immediately looked away and headed towards the bar to the innkeeper, hoping that the woman thought nothing of her. She sat on a stool next to a guard that had a little too much to drink and decided to take an impromptu nap on the bar, much to the innkeeper's annoyance. Once Nadiya had gotten the innkeeper's attention, she ordered dinner and then made some small talk with the innkeeper about the surprising amount of activity in the building until the innkeeper had to go over and handle a couple of flustered townsfolk arguing over how much wood they had cut over the past several days. As the innkeeper dealt with them, Nadiya decided to venture a look at the woman and the man at their table. When she looked, she saw that they were watching the antics of the orc in silence, the man looking amused while the woman had condescension on her face. After a moment, Nadiya turned around to wait for her meal, and soon enough the innkeeper returned with her order, having resolved the previous argument without much issue.

As she ate, Nadiya kept her head down for a while. After sneaking another glance backwards to see to check and see if the woman was still preoccupied, Nadiya beckoned the innkeeper over and began to ask her questions about the identity of the pair. The innkeeper revealed that the woman happened to be Alva and the man identified as Hroggar, both key figures in the case. After being informed of Alva's odd behavior since coming to Morthal and Hroggar's infatuation with her in the week leading up to the fire, as well as Alva and Hroggar's reclusiveness since the incident, Nadiya thanked the innkeeper, Jonna, for the leads, and Jonna went to go attend to other business around the inn.

With this information that she gotten from Jonna, Nadiya was convinced that Alva was up to no good, and likely the killer that Helgi was referring to. She still wasn't sure if Alva was acting alone or with other vampires, but in any case Nadiya knew that Alva had drawn too much attention to herself. As a fellow vampire that understood the fine line that such undead had to walk in order to assimilate into society, she had to put the rogue undead down before the town becomes too paranoid, and possibly even seeks out the services of vampire hunters. Such people would spell great trouble for her, and even though she could handle most foes individually, vampire hunters not a notable exception for someone of her strength, she knew better than to face such odds and to risk greater, troublesome exposure to mortals. She had to act before this Alva makes her next move.

Nadiya scooped the last of her food into her mouth and downed it all with a cup of water. After wiping her mouth, she put some coin on the bar and walked over to Jonna, informing her that she will be taking a short stroll before returning and renting a room for the night. The innkeeper nodded and Nadiya walked outside, intent on first playing Helgi's game and then breaking into Alva's house to find some hard evidence. As she exited the inn, she decided to go over and check up on Windbreaker. After spending a couple of minutes petting her horse and making sure that everything she had left was in place, she left the stable and started towards the ruined house, hoping that Helgi's game wouldn't take too long, and wondering how she will find her. As Nadiya continued onwards, she suddenly began to sense an uncomfortable presence trailing right behind her. Putting her hand on the hilt of her waraxe reflexively and hoping for the best, she paused and turned around to see a visibly-angry Alva glaring daggers at her.

Before Nadiya could say anything, the woman quickly closed the distance between them and drew very close to her. Once both were standing an arms-length from the other, Alva drew herself to her full Nordic height to her advantage to try and intimidate the shorter Breton opposite her. She then began to speak to Nadiya in a low voice with an undertone of thinly-veiled hostility.

"I know you for what you are. Kin are not difficult to smell amongst all of the cattle here. I just don't know why you decided to part in the investigation that's taking up everyone's free time in Morthal."

Nadiya put up her hands and responded, "Easy, easy. Like you said, we're kin. I was just looking to make some gold before I continued on my journey."

Alva scrutinized the Breton closely before continuing, "There are things going on here that are in a delicate balance. You being here is not only upsetting it, but also presents competition for us. I will let you know that this town's blood is ours. Leave it!"

In response, Nadiya said with a false air of confusion, "Oh, I wasn't aware! Sorry for the confusion." She paused, and then taking a risk, she continued, "I don't suppose you're looking for new members anytime soon?" To this, Alva furrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, glaring at Nadiya in silence. After a few seconds, Nadiya let out an awkward chuckle and said, "Hah, uh, just kidding. I'll leave soon."

Alva let her arms down and finished, "See that you do so quickly. By the morning, I expect to hear that you decided to leave the investigation open. Now, we must return to our roles lest the sheep suspect the wolves." With all said, the Nord turned around sharply and walked towards the inn to retrieve a waiting Hroggar.

After watching them for a moment, Nadiya decided to head back to Windbreaker to give Alva a false impression. As she sat next to her horse fiddling with her pack, she observed the pair slowly make their way across town until they walked out of sight. In the meantime, Nadiya thought about what just happened.

So Alva is part of a coven. Not surprising. Of course she didn't say it explicitly in their exchange, but the way she presented herself made Nadiya believe so. And in talking with her, Nadiya can only conclude that she might ultimately be responsible for the fire. Either she was the one Helgi was talking about, or she'll need to break into Alva's house, which is a necessity at this point anyways. After another moment of fidgeting and petting her sleeping horse, she stood up and continued onwards to the ruined house.

Upon reaching the house, she looked around to see if she could spot the ghost girl. After a moment of searching and seeing nothing, she starting to call out Helgi's name in hopes of finding her in this way. The second time she called for the girl, she heard her voice floating along in the wind.

"Maria, there you are! Remember we're playing hide and seek, you gotta find me!" Nadiya groaned and started looking around the ruins again for the ghost girl. A few minutes after fruitless searching, she ventured away from the ruins and began to look around the area. Finding nothing once again, she decided to follow a path that was leading away from the house and from town. As she followed the path, she started to sense some distance away a presence not unlike that of kin. As she got closer, she realized that that the aura the presence wasn't Alva, but someone else. Cautious, Nadiya cast a muffling spell to mask her approach, triggered her vampiric night vision, and began to stride her way forward as sneakily as she could while using the roaming fog to her advantage. A few steps later, she came upon a hooded figure huddled over a freshly-dug hole in the ground, thumbing its fingers over a book of some sort. Nadiya quickly hid behind an elevated mound of dirt and observed the person trying to see if she could recognize it. As she looked on, Helgi's voice suddenly penetrated the night and cried out, "You found me! Make Laelette go away!" Startled by the girl's voice and now aware of an intruder, the person put its book away, and drew a dagger, preparing for the worse. The figure turned to search for whoever stumbled into the area, exposing a feminine face with glowing-red eyes to a still-hidden Nadiya.

To her confusion, the vampire wasn't Alva. It was someone that Nadiya hadn't seen before, and judging by her behavior Nadiya guessed that this undead was a mere fledging. Eager to figure out who this was and hopefully to get answers, Nadiya stood up fully and asked aloud, "Hey! What's going on?" Instantly the other vampire snapped her head towards Nadiya, and unwilling to let any witnesses get away she immediately prepared some destruction spell in her free hand and began to cautiously walk towards her target.

The vampire sniffed the air as she advanced, and upon detecting Nadiya's scent she sneered, "You're not kin I recognize. No matter, you've seen too much. You'll make for a quick snack before I finish this." Humph, thought Nadiya. I wonder how well this fledging will hold against me.

As Nadiya drew her waraxe and prepped her own destruction spell, the two combatants began to circle around, waiting for the other to make the first move. "You know, we could just talk things out instead of having to fight a fellow undead," offered Nadiya as she lowered her weapon slightly after both studied the other for a short time. The other vampire considered her opponent's words for a brief moment, and then shook her head while saying, "No. My sire doesn't trust anyone outside of the clan, and neither do I." Sensing an opening, the vampire quickly made a couple of long strides to strike at Nadiya with her dagger, while bringing her other hand forth and casting a vampiric drain upon her target. "May your blood serve us well!" she exclaimed as she charged.

Nadiya had fought other vampires several times as practice, and only twice in actual combat. Of those times in combat, one ended in a draw and the other left the surrounding area devastated and her spent of energy. Her opponents in those fights were highly skilled in combat and had centuries of experience, and thus they were able to go toe to toe with the then Imperial Battlemage. This vampire that Nadiya now faced was nowhere near the capabilities of those masters of the night, and she wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. Sure she was kin, but that meant nothing in this situation.

She allowed the other vampire to continue with her drain and instead opted to block the strike from the dagger. Drain spells varied wildly in strength according to the power of the corresponding vampire, and Nadiya felt only a slight pain as the drain began its work upon her body, further indicating the novice abilities of the fledging. She shook off the spell's effects, and after blocking the strike she lifted her waraxe as high as she could in an attempt to bring her weapon down on her opponent's head. Pausing her attack, the other vampire was able to dodge the blow in time, surprised at how quickly her opponent was able to recover and attack in short order. Such a blow would have been instantly fatal had it found home, but with the miss came an opportunity for the other vampire to make another strike at Nadiya. She took the bait, immediately thrusting her dagger forward with the intent to stab Nadiya in the chest, which she was to find out very shortly was the wrong move. As the dagger was about to hit, Nadiya turned and grabbed her opponent's dagger arm out of the air, the other vampire yelping in response with surprise. Nadiya quickly lifted her waraxe to slash at the other vampire, and sensing the immediate danger her opponent tried to pull back helplessly. With a powerful swing, Nadiya managed to bury her axe in her opponent's chest, gravely injuring her enemy who collapsed backwards from the power of the blow. Nadiya smirked at how trivial this engagement was, and said with scorn, "If you were open to talk, you wouldn't have my axe in your chest. Do you want to tell me anything, or would you rather die a true death right now?"

The other vampire spat at Nadiya and seethed, "I will see you in Oblivion kinslayer. May Molag Bal curse you for your betrayal." With a shrug, Nadiya reached down, placed a foot on the other vampire, and with a grunt drew out her waraxe noisily. She then lifted up her weapon, paused to wish her defeated opponent luck in the next life, and with a swing beheaded the vampire who let out one last scream of fury, the glow from the disembodied head's eyes ceasing shortly thereafter. With this said and done, Nadiya wiped her weapon down and walked over to see what this vampire was up to.

She came upon the hole, containing a child-sized coffin. Wondering if she should open the coffin, the ghost girl spoke up from within the casket before she could step down. Helgi voiced her joy at being found to Nadiya before the other vampire, Laelette, was able to complete her work, whom was trying to resurrect Helgi to keep as a companion. Helgi then elaborated on the events of the fire, and explained that Laelette was the culprit behind starting the fire. As for why this all happened, Helgi was unsure. Judging by Helgi's testimony however, it was clear to Nadiya Alva's hand behind Laelette's actions. After getting enough information, Nadiya then promised to the ghost girl that she would bring justice as appropriately as she could to the girl and her family. To this promise, Helgi thanked Nadiya for her help and then went off to "sleep," however ghosts do so.

After this exchange, Nadiya decided to leave the hole untouched and instead head back into town to sneak into Alva's house. As she started to head out, the sounds of someone hastily coming towards her direction came to her ears, and she decided to wait and see who was about to arrive. A few seconds later a light came through the fog, and after another few seconds a man holding a torch in his left hand and a simple iron sword in his right came into full view, stumbling upon the corpse of Laelette. He bent down to examine the body, and after a moment he recoiled in horror and began yelling for help. On cue, Nadiya stepped forward to reveal herself just as her muffling spell dissipated and revealed herself.

In his unnerved state the man was poised to attack Nadiya, but luckily she managed to calm him down to reason. The man had been alerted to the scream that Laelette let out before dying, and as a result he was very much on edge, with the ominous fog only increasing his terror. As they talked about the corpse that he stumbled upon the man identified himself as Thonnir, the husband of the now-late Laelette. He discussed his wife's odd behavior in the days leading up to her disappearance, and once she vanished Alva had told him of Laelette's supposed intent to join the Stormcloaks. After telling Nadiya all of this, she told him of her certainty of Alva's vampirism and hand in the fire, to which Thonnir expressed disbelief and cited Nadiya's lack of hard proof as his reason. She then informed him of her intent to find this proof, and she parted from him as he remained to examine Laelette, some guards showing up shortly after she left.

Once she went across town, Nadiya attempted to sneak into Alva's house only to walk into both her and Hroggar, both very much displeased at her interference in their affair. Nadiya knocked them both out after a short struggle, and tied them as securely as she could to some nearby furniture. After searching the house thoroughly, she finally found Alva's journal hidden inside the rogue vampire's coffin. She started to read, and it became revealed to her that a master vampire by the name of Movarth Piquine and his coven were intent on enslaving Morthal for their own ends, with Alva's mission to seduce the men and guards in town to turn them as thralls, the rest to be used as cattle. Alva was on good progress and had influenced Hroggar to her own ends successfully until she turned Laelette, who botched her plan to eliminate Hroggar's family as a way to tie loose ends by way of the fire. Along with these records was a map revealing the hideout of the coven, as well as other miscellaneous locations. With the journal safely tucked in her pocket, Nadiya went upstairs only to find Alva missing with Hroggar slowly stirring, groaning from the force of the blow he had taken from the chair Nadiya used to knock him out. At this point is was just past midnight, and the fog outside had grown even more ominous.

Judging that the Jarl would find both the journal and whatever Hroggar might have to say as critical to the case, Nadiya grabbed a rowdy Hroggar by the collar of his shirt and took him along as she went outside. Such a sight did not go unnoticed by the guards, and a pair of patrolling guards pulled Nadiya aside to ask her why she was in Alva's house and why she was dragging Hroggar along. After informing them of her findings, the guards escorted the two to the Hall, and once inside Nadiya and Hroggar waited as the guards went to summon the Jarl. Once the Jarl arrived, she went to sit on her throne and listened as Nadiya presented her findings, as well as Hroggar's testimonies to which Nadiya had to pressure him to release. Nadiya knew that individuals enthralled by vampires, depending on the extent of their master's influence on the person, are often uncooperative at best and outright aggressive and hostile at worst. However, Alva seemed to have allowed Hroggar a greater degree of independence than she expected based on his limited reluctance to share his side of the story. After some deliberation, the Jarl resolved to have a detachment of guards and Legionnaires sent to eliminate the threat in the morning, and thanked Nadiya for her work in proving Hroggar innocent, relatively speaking. However, it turned out that there was more to expect.

An anxious crowd had gathered outside of the Hall, roused by one of the locals who had observed Nadiya exiting Alva's place with Hroggar and assumed that the poor man was responsible for the fire. Once the Jarl, her servants, and guards came outside to figure out what was happening with Nadiya hanging behind everyone else, one of the townsfolk pressed the Jarl for answers The Jarl addressed the crowd of Hroggar's victimhood and of her intentions to send forces to deal with the vampire threat responsible, and finally asked the townsfolk to return home and let her deal with the matter. Once the Jarl finished with her words, the crowd did not disperse as she had wanted; on the contrary the crowd called upon her to take action, wanting to strike against the vampires as soon as possible before any other tragic occurrences happen. Unable to calm the rabble down, the Jarl adhered to the crowd's wishes and told the Legate to prepare some Legionnaires and guards. She then turned to Nadiya and asked her if she had experience in fighting vampires. When Nadiya nodded affirmatively, the Jarl then asked her to not only assist with the attack but also lead the troops in destroying the scheming undead completely with what assistance the Legion and the town guards can offer at this hour along with a portion of the crowd armed and ready to fight. In return, the Jarl would increase the reward for Nadiya substantially and even allow her the right of citizenship in Morthal.

Such a request took Nadiya off-guard. The Jarl had only asked her to figure if Hroggar was innocent or guilty, and this turn of events was not something she particularly wanted to participate in for several reasons. For one, she was quite fatigued from just arriving from Dawnstar in the morning, with no chance for a rest since then. Another was that this engagement seemed like something that outsiders shouldn't delve into, especially if she wants to keep a low profile. But the most important reason to her was the risk that the coven posed to mortals at this time, a little further along than midnight by now.

It was common knowledge that vampires were active chiefly during the day, unless one wished to brave the sun as Nadiya and the twins had done. What was lesser-known though was that a vampire's strength can increase exponentially at night according to their traits and raw power. Assuming that this Movarth Piquine was the same vampire referenced in the book Immortal Blood, then she would be hard-pressed to defeat him even with assistance since he's bound to have centuries of experience and fighting. And with the assumption that his coven will be at full strength, Nadiya was skeptical of any attack upon them at this time, and she would prefer to wait until daybreak at the earliest so that the coven should be asleep or at least not to full fighting condition. The payoff was very enticing, but the risks would be too great at this time.

Upon informing the Jarl of her thoughts, the Jarl responded that Alva likely escaped back to the coven, and if they wait until daybreak the coven would likely have left for elsewhere in Skyrim, and the threat of roving vampires was not something the Jarl liked to see. The Jarl acknowledge the immense risk an attack on a vampire coven would be at night, but there was only so much time they had to eliminate the undead. Nadiya could not counter these points, and eventually she agreed to the Jarl's request. The Jarl took a moment to pay Nadiya gold that had been set aside for Nadiya's original tasks, and then asked her to work with the Legate.

For half an hour, members of the crowd brave enough to march to the lair of the coven waited outside the Hall as the Legate, a detachment of his Legionnaires, and a group of the town guards prepared for battle. Nadiya quickly and discreetly changed into her battlemage gear and covered it all up with her mage robes from the College, not wanting to expose her former status. After all of this preparation was done, everyone went outside to meet the remaining crowd and Nadiya gave everyone vital information on fighting vampires while the Legate discussed tactics. After another thirty minutes, Nadiya quaffed a stamina potion to sate her fatigue temporarily, and then all began to march to the lair as indicated on the map from the journal, Nadiya leading the way and the Legate next to her, with everyone else trailing close behind, anxious for whatever lay ahead for them.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this work, the Elder Scrolls series belongs to Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks

The swamp was eerily quiet on the way to the lair. There were no signs of life as the mass of people moved onwards, and coupled with the dense fog the environment served to greatly unnerve many in the herd of anxious souls. Nadiya reassured everyone that there were no ambushes lying in wait as they all proceeded, though this did little to comfort the others especially once the townsfolk that had tagged along realized the predicament that they faced. At least the guards and the Legionnaires had combat experience, while the crowd at large only ever swung an axe to chop wood at most. After about twenty minutes of marching, Nadiya spotted a couple of torches in the distance, and upon inspection realized that this was the entrance to the lair. One of the Legionnaires skillfully dispatched the sentry before she could alert the coven with a single arrow, and then the mass of people halted. At this point, the townsfolk had almost unanimously elected to return to Morthal out of fear, but also confident that the rest of the force was able to handle the vampires much more effectively. The sole exception was a vengeful Thonnir. Being the only person in the crowd directly affected by the actions of the coven, he offered to continue with the force as he'd like to deal with Alva personally and seek retribution for his losses. Nadiya agreed reluctantly, and the Legate asked him to stay with a couple of the town guards for his safety. After taking a moment to check their gear and brush up on tactics one more time, the Legate ordered some of the force to stay and watch the entrance. Satisfied with their progress, all began to move into the lair of vampires.

Under her instructions Nadiya took the lead once again thanks to her claims of experience in vampire hunting. This wasn't untrue, but her primary reason in wanting to lead was to detect hostile entities before they could strike, hoping to limit and even prevent casualties on the rest of the force. Behind her, the Legate led his Legionnaires in a phalanx formation wielding their polearms or swords with their large steel shields, and the guards took up the rear with arrows drawn on their bows, Thonnir carrying his hand axe and a rough wooden shield among them. Normally the Legate would have taken the lead, but he and his troops were inexperienced with fighting against vampires. To compensate, he reluctantly gave Nadiya command since the Jarl trusted the adventurer's proclaimed skills in vampire hunting, though he kept a close eye on her thinking that her blunder earlier in the day was an indication of her fighting ability.

The force walked onwards cautiously, following Nadiya's commands carefully. For a few minutes nothing happened as all continued deeper into the lair. Shortly after traversing a winding tunnel, they came upon an enlarged cavern where inside stood a couple of thralls and some subservient frostbite spiders. Nadiya motioned for the guards to eliminate them, and after drawing their bows, careful not to make noise, they let their arrows loose. The thralls fell quickly without noise thanks to well-placed headshots, and most of the spiders met similar fates with the exception of one that only suffered a missing leg. Rather than facing the array of solders, the wounded spider instead retreated deeper into the lair through another tunnel. Upon seeing this, a couple of the guards tried to shoot down the retreating monster to no avail, and Nadiya sprinted forward to try and catch it against the Legate's protests. Passing by a cart containing some bodies, she managed to bring her waraxe down on the spider as they exited the tunnel. She paused to catch her breath, and then heard a loud shout. Nadiya looked up to see some more thralls and a vampire readying their weapons, one of the thralls slipping away to get help. Just as she got up to confront the coven, the Legate and one of his Legionnaires caught up, with the rest of the force catching up noisily. With a war cry, Nadiya and the Legate charged forward to meet the incoming hostiles while the Legionnaire followed his superior.

Nadiya managed to kill the vampire with a thunderbolt after sparring with him for a few moments, while the Legate and the Legionnaire handily dispatched several of the thralls. Seeing themselves outmatched, the remaining thralls retreated further into the lair to reinforce the rest of the coven. As the rest of the force arrived, they all regroup accordingly, and then the force marched as one onwards following Nadiya and the Legate.

As they marched, they all passed by several holes and carts containing more corpses and mortal remains, to the forces' collective disgust. Nadiya sorely wanted to drain some of the remains for blood, but she had to hold that off until later. After going through another tunnel, they emerged into a bedchamber of sorts and encountered several vampires and thralls that were prepared for their coming. It so happened that Alva was behind them and wearing some leather armor instead of her scanty dress as from earlier. Upon recognizing her, Thonnir roared and pushed forward to attack Alva. The Legate tried to hold him back, but Thonnir managed to escape his grasp and continue. Fearing for his life, Nadiya charged forward as well, and shaking his head in disapproval the Legate called on his force to engage.

Nadiya managed to overtake Thonnir and swung her waraxe at the coven's members to clear the way for him, while Alva snarled and drew a pair of daggers to meet Thonnir's attack. Nadiya's swing found no target, but her action allowed the enraged widower to sidestep the thralls and other vampires, and directly attack Alva. Meanwhile, the Legionnaires pushed forward in their phalanx with the Legate taking position front and center, while the guards drew their swords and shields and followed the troops, unable to accurately engaged the coven in the enclosed cavern without risking friendly fire.

The next few minutes were chaotic for the coven as they quickly fell to the trained blows and strikes of the soldiers and guards. Here and there a Legionnaire or guard would suffer an injury, a couple losing a limb or so, but fortunately there were no deaths on their side. After dispatching a vampire courtesy of her bloodied waraxe, Nadiya looked up to see Thonnir having trouble with Alva. The vampire was stronger than he anticipated, and despite his relentless attacks her intermittent drain spells were taking a toll on him. After missing a swing with his axe, Alva took the opening and grabbed Thonnir. Baring her fangs, she seethed to him, "When you see Laelette in the next life, tell her that she was a pathetic excuse for a vampire." As she was about to plunge her fangs into his neck and drain him, Nadiya quickly formed an ice spike and fired it at Alva. The spike hit home on Alva's leg, and as the vampire recoiled in pain and surprise Thonnir headbutted her and used his shield to knock her down. Kneeling in pain, Alva attempted to get up but Thonnir grabbed her, spat on her face and raged, "When YOU see her, I hope that she gets her own justice, as will I now!" He then pushed her back and used his axe to hack her to death, leaving Alva a complete mess and Thonnir avenging his fallen wife. Thonnir then looked to Nadiya and nodded in appreciation.

Alva was among the last to die, and once the fighting ceased the force paused to recuperate. Although no one in their force had died, a fair amount of the troops and guards had been wounded, and the ones that had more serious injuries were sent back to the surface with an escort to take them back to Morthal. After the remaining soldiers and guards quaffed healing potions where necessary, the force began to trudge onwards with reduced numbers, Nadiya and the Legate taking the lead once again while Thonnir fell back with the guards.

Very shortly the force emerged into the main chamber of the lair containing the rest of the coven consisting of many vampires and their patron thralls. Nadiya easily located the master vampire Movarth based on his looks alone. He was swathed in elegant apparel, and wielded a beautifully designed, enchanted glass sword. Upon realizing that kin were among the intruders, he decried Nadiya's treachery and commanded his minions to slay them all, and to bring Nadiya to him alive. The Legate immediately ordered his Legionnaires to reform a phalanx and the guards to draw their bows, owing to the openness of the chamber. Deciding to take after Thonnir's example, Nadiya ignored the other members of the coven and used a flame stream to ward off incoming vampires and thralls to engage Movarth one-on-one. After bypassing them, she raised a ward and just managed to deter Movarth's shock attacks enough for her to swing at the master vampire, her ebony waraxe meeting the glass sword with a sharp clank.

The rest of the force was able to shrug off the coven's attacks and press forward slowly while the guards picked off the coven one by one. Desperate at this point, the vampires ordered their thralls to charge directly at the Legionnaires and their shields wholesale in hopes of forcing an opening in the Legionnaires defense. To the Legate's dismay, the coven's ploy worked and several of the Legionnaires tripped backwards from the force of the unexpected charge, exposing the rest of the soldiers. A couple of the downed soldiers fell victim to the thrall's weapons while the frenzied vampires dashed forward to further disorient the intruders. Realizing that his troops and guards needed a new strategy, the Legate ordered the Legionnaires to disperse from the phalanx and go on the offensive, and ordered the guards to do the same. After forcing away several thralls from attacking the Legionnaires still incapacitated, he helped them up and resumed participating in the battle, where the coven continued to fight as fiercely as they could against the trained soldiers of the Legion and the guards of Morthal.

Meanwhile, Nadiya found herself facing her first serious opponent since the Great War. Though she was strong in both arms and magic, Movarth was as well, and he had faced a wider variety of deadly foes. As the fighting went on, both could not gain an edge on the other until Thonnir, having finished off a thrall, picked up the thrall's dropped mace and threw it towards Movarth. Although the weapon flew overhead without causing injury, the master vampire flinched at the sight of the weapon. This opening was all Nadiya needed, and she fired off a charged thunderbolt she had been holding for a while at him. This flung Movarth backwards towards a stack of boxes and stunned him for a brief moment. Sensing her chance to finish him off, Nadiya immediately put her waraxe away on her belt, picked up a nearby greatsword from a fallen vampire and charged forward intending to impale the master vampire. Noticing the rapidly approaching threat, he jumped out of the way and readied himself as Nadiya stopped herself and reoriented towards Movarth.

"You fight like the greatest of beasts, traitor. You would have done well in our coven. Why do you insist on fighting for these mortals?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"Because what you and your clan are doing is ridiculous. Enslaving a whole town, a capital in Skyrim is bound to end badly for everyone. This way, only you and your coven need to die, while I will walk amongst the living with no fear."

"You think you could dwell peacefully with cattle such as these? Humph. It is clear that you are not from Skyrim. You seem like one of those from the Vampyrum Order in Cyrodiil. I suppose I cannot blame you for your actions then. But no matter. You will die for your actions against us, kinslayer." With these concluding words, he then cast his drain spell upon Nadiya to heal himself at her expense.

Shocked at how quickly the spell was deteriorating her body and health, she took the greatsword and dashed forward to strike at the ancient vampire. Movarth paused his drain to block her attacks, and as did so he sensed an incoming foe from behind. He quickly used a telekinesis spell to fling Nadiya away and he spun around to block the Legate's sword and focus on this new arrival, believing that Nadiya sufficiently dealt with for the time being.

Recovering quickly, Nadiya grabbed the greatsword and looked over to see the Legate becoming quickly outmatched. She cast her muffling spell and dashed forward intending to land a critical blow upon Movarth. As the Legate was about to be overwhelmed, Thonnir rushed forward to assist the Legate, and his arrival was able to completely distract Movarth away from Nadiya. As the ancient vampire swiftly turned to deal with the two mortals, Nadiya raised the greatsword up in a thrusting position and with incredible strength managed to impale Movarth from behind, lift both sword and vampire up in the air to Thonnir and the Legate's astonishment, and slammed the greatsword into the ground, Movarth screaming in pain the entire time.

With their leader now near certain death, the remaining members of the coven attempted to flee the chamber but all were caught in one way or another by the Legionnaires and guards. As the Legate and Thonnir rushed elsewhere to engage the rest of the coven, Nadiya kneeled down to receive any final words from the ancient vampire before she beheaded him. "I am sorry that you and your coven had to die. But I couldn't allow you to have taken so much control. Anything you want to tell me before I off you?"

Movarth hung silently for a moment, and started to chuckle at his fate. To have been a vampire hunter, then a vampire, then the victim of a vampire-hunting vampire. Although he was confident that Lord Bal would welcome him for his work, Movarth wished that he could have achieved his plan of domination. But now, that was moot. Deciding that his time had come after centuries of walking Tamriel, he spoke to the girl in a hauntingly even tone and voice as the battle raged on, with hints of resentment here and there.

"I admit I would not have expected my death to come at the hands of a kinslayer. And for you to possess such strength and skill, young as you are? Unbelievable. I will not tell you to how to live the odd way you do kinslayer, but I will tell you this. My ally will be disappointed in hearing of me and my coven's destruction, and he would be looking for someone like you to replace me. Should you ever meet the Lord Harkon, you may tell him that it was you that slayed me, and you may show him my ring as proof. Whatever you do after this kinslayer, may the blood flow as rich and delightful as honey. Now, finish it. I desire to see Lord Bal as soon as I can. I have waited Ages for this moment." After handing her his oddly enchanted ring, Nadiya took her waraxe and beheaded him without any other fuss, taking his valuable sword before walking away.

Once the last of the coven had been put down, a resounding cheer of victory echoed through the lair, loud enough to catch the ear of the guards left to watch the entrance. Although the force had suffered some losses and more injuries, their mission was accomplished with better results than they anticipated. As the force recuperated and searched the lair for anything noteworthy to take back to Morthal, Nadiya went off to see if there was anything else of interest in the lair. As she looked around, she noticed a small alcove that had been missed by the others. Walking forward to see if it had any treasure within, she was taken aback by the sudden appearance of Helgi. Visibily happy at how things turned out, she thanked Nadiya deeply for bringing her and her mother justice, and asked her to tell her father that she forgives him. After telling Nadiya of where to find some treasure she had found, Helgi waved goodbye and wished Nadiya luck before going to sleep, as she described it.

There were many signs and indications that the coven was hastily preparing to evacuate their lair, which made sorting out goods and supplies among treasures easy work. After a little more searching, Nadiya snagged some gold as well as a few weapons, armor pieces, and jewelry that she could take back to Morthal and sell off. She also managed to fill her canteens with blood, and even found extras that were hidden among the valuables the coven had accumulated over time. With her looting done, she debriefed with the Legate who commented on her brash yet devastating fighting style. Upon informing him that she was about to head back to Morthal, he requested that they meet later in town once everyone had slept and ate a hearty meal in the morning. Although his intent was for him to offer her a place in the Legion, Nadiya could tell the Legate was interested in her as well to her amusement. Agreeing to meet once more later at daytime, she set out with Thonnir and several of the guards, while the Legate and the other guards and Legionnaires continued to strip the lair of anything useful to take back to Morthal, whether it be weapons or luxury items.

Once their group returned to town, the faintest streaks of dawn were beginning to break in the night sky. Thonnir gave Nadiya his deepest thanks and wished her luck in her travels before returning to his home, while the guards returned to their barracks exhausted. Nadiya was the same way, and by the time she stumbled into the inn she walked into an empty room to knock out in, to the amusement of a couple of workers waiting for their friends to return from the battle.

It was just after noon when Nadiya awoke from her well-deserved sleep. After changing into her coven apparel, washing up, and eating a massive brunch, she compensated Jonna for the room and the meal, then chatted with her for some time about the events of the previous day. A while later, a Legionnaire came into the inn to request Nadiya's presence with the Jarl and the Legate, and as they went to the Hall they passed townsfolk and guards who soundly congratulated the traveler for helping them. Once inside, Nadiya spent a few minutes being debriefed and was rewarded with a sizeable amount of gold, amounting to two thousand pieces. When this business was all said and done, the Jarl handed her a scroll that authorized her to live in Morthal if she so chooses to return, and then she went away to discuss other matters concerning her Hold.

As agreed, Nadiya and the Legate had a short meeting in a side room where he extended an offer to her to join the Legion as she expected. She politely declined, telling Taurinus, as she learned his name to be, that she would like to continue exploring Skyrim for some time, although she reassured him that she would assist the Legion in any engagement she happens upon. Satisfied with her answer, Legate Taurinus gave her a token with his seal to indicate to other Legionnaires around the province that she was an ally to their forces. After this was said and done, Legate Taurinus then sheepishly asked her if she was spoken for. Nadiya thought well of the Legate, but ultimately was disinterested in him in that manner and simply told him that she wasn't interested in settling down so soon, which was partially the truth. Accepting her answer without any further prodding, the Legate then escorted her outside. As they parted, Nadiya remarked to him about how Jonna the innkeeper seemed lonely at times, which raised his spirits slightly and made him realize that he hadn't really engaged with the townsfolk since being posted in Morthal. Promising to put in a good word for him, Nadiya then went back to the inn to retrieve her pack and find the treasure that Helgi had told her about.

Nadiya spent the day and the next in Morthal, recuperating and making sure everything was in order with herself and with the town. She also sold the loot won from the lair for good money, and Nadiya found herself purchasing another pack just to hold the sheer amount of coins she had accumulated since leaving the College. On the second day, she met with Hroggar and attempted to help the local wizard Falion rehabilitate him. She thought the wizard odd, but she recognized his knowledge vampirism and the undead was beyond even her own, and after they had helped Hroggar as best as they could she stayed with him for the rest of the day to glean as much information as she could about the vampires in Skyrim. He also identified the ring that Movarth had given her as an artifact called the "Ring of the Erudite," a valuable artifact increasing the strength and reserves of a mage's magic ability. As for the identity of the Lord Harkon that Movarth had mentioned to Nadiya, Falion was unsure if this Lord was a mere legend or some master of the night in some remote corner of Skyrim. In any case, he advised her to take caution when dealing with Skyrim's vampires, as he claimed that they were particularly brutal when compared to other vampires across Tamriel. Nadiya took this advice to heart, having seen plenty of examples firsthand in the lair.

In the late morning of the fourth day, she went to the Hall to wish the Jarl well, to which the aged woman responded likewise. She then went say her goodbyes to various townsfolk that she had met, among them a happier Thonnir and his son both adjusting to their conditions and an improved Hroggar attempting to return to a simpler life, having taken Helgi's forgiveness as told by Nadiya to heart. She saved Jonna for last who had been very receptive to a courting Legate thanks to Nadiya's input, and the innkeeper gave the adventurer her warmest wishes. After she had done all that she wanted to do and made sure that she was well-stocked on things, especially blood, Nadiya mounted Windbreaker and set out for Solitude, eager to finally conclude this journey and to continue with her ultimate mission of figuring out how to fight the Thalmor.

* * *

A/N: Hey all, if you got this far thanks for reading my work! I'm making this note because it'd be awesome if I could get some reviews on this whether it be noting grammatical errors, logical inconsistencies, uneven pacing, or even a simple "hey, neat job kiddo" among other things. I'm not sure how my writing abilities fare compared to others on this site since I don't spend much if any time browsing stories thanks to other obligations, namely university, so this is why I'd like a review here and there. Since writing is very likely to be central to my future career, it'd be great to have a critique here and there. Once again, thanks for reading and if you have questions, feel free to ask!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this work, the Elder Scrolls series belongs to Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks

Although she had made good friends and respectable allies in the town of Morthal, Nadiya was none the happier to leave the swampy place. Such an environment wasn't to her tastes and she was eager to get on with her mission. This didn't mean that her departure was not without desire for more time with new friends, though in any case she's bound to revisit Morthal in the future. She wasn't sure exactly when, but eventually.

As Nadiya and Windbreaker departed and headed west towards Dragon Bridge, the next major stop before Solitude, she noticed that the snow was becoming less common the further she traveled, pleasing her. Snow and cold didn't affect her versus mortals in terms of health, and the sights were very picturesque, but regardless she was eager for a change in scenery thanks to the lack of excitement that the tundra had to offer besides danger in the form of bears, saber-cats, trolls, and other beasts, not to mention environmental hazards. Such landscapes were pretty, but she sorely wanted to see some greenery and a more diverse wilderness, not to mention more people.

The trip to the village of Dragon Bridge was largely uneventful. She stopped by an Imperial stronghold called Fort Snowhawk on the third day, staffed with numerous Legionnaires and some traders that stopped by the fort on occasion to make their wares available and chat to the otherwise-bored troops within. Only the rare Stormcloak incursion would rouse the soldiers, and even then, the rebels usually had other destinations and targets in mind; this fort was too far in Imperial territory for the rebels to mount any worthwhile attack. After browsing the goods and wares the traders had to offer and making her own talk with the Legionnaires, she resumed on her journey, unwilling to spend more time than necessary getting sidetracked.

It took another three days for Nadiya to reach Dragon Bridge from the fort. During her journey through this region she noticed that small villages were becoming more common, as opposed to the icy north where settlements were rare. Not only that, but camping conditions improved drastically the further she went along the road to her destination. Though she would generally stay with villagers at night due to a desire for a sturdy bed and a relatively safe place to sleep in, she did spend a couple of nights camping out in the wilderness on her own volition, valuing the peace and serenity that camping had to offer her.

In the tundra, a scarcity of villages meant that she had little choice but to camp in the harsh landscape for the night most of the time as she traveled between capitals. Camping in the tundra was difficult as she had to constantly make sure her tent was secure from the fierce winds that would come with little warning, not to mention ensure that her horse was safe. Nadiya knew a spell that could keep one warm for many hours so that Windbreaker wasn't in danger of freezing to death in such conditions. However, she kept alert for any predators that wanted to make a meal out of either of them and always summoned flame thralls to keep them safe as they slept. In this forested part of Skyrim, the worst beasts that she had encountered were wolves, which were easier for her to handle compared to the predators in the tundra. Bandits were also more common although none presented a credible challenge to her, and twice Nadiya would hunt smaller groups down to not only ensure that they wouldn't harm other travelers but also to replenish her blood supplies as frequently as she could afford. Being a vampire that lived among the living was not an easy lifestyle, and having a steady stream of blood is always something that a vampire must always keep in mind.

Six days after leaving Morthal Nadiya entered Dragon Bridge, a quaint little village whose significance rested on the historical bridge that it was named for and watched over. The Legion had a stronger presence here owing to its key location as being the final major checkpoint for anyone looking to enter Solitude further along the road. Besides the Legion there was the presence of the Penitus Oculatus, an organization that she was not very familiar with thanks to their formation after the Great War. From what she understood, they were essentially the Blades with a different name and not having the connotations of being dragonslayers as the Blades were reputed to be long ago. She always wondered why the Dominion explicitly stated the Blades to be disbanded in the Concordat as she had little knowledge about the Blades and their history, but she figured they must have been ancient enemies judging by the massacre of many Blade agents right before the Great War began, and their subsequent disbandment.

Nadiya decided to spend the night in Dragon Bridge as it was the early evening and it would still be another day until she could reach Solitude. When she went to the inn for the night she ate dinner and engaged in lengthy discussions with the innkeeper and patrons about recent events, the patrons including other travelers, locals, Legionnaires, and even one agent from the Oculatus. It seemed that the war had entered a stalemate at this point. Ulfric and his rebels seem to have gotten themselves bogged down trying to attack Imperial strongholds across the province, and the Legion has little ability to project troops due to a lack of reinforcements from Cyrodiil and other provinces plus lackluster recruitment compared to the rebels, and so Tullius had to lock down on his holdings for the time being. If the general could gain more troops or sway the Jarl of Whiterun to the Imperial cause, then the scales might tip in the general's favor and he would stand a better chance of quashing the rebellion according to the patrons. After a long time talking with people, Nadiya finally called it a night and went to her rented room to catch some sleep.

The next morning, Nadiya woke up just as daybreak occurred. After breakfast and paying off the innkeeper for the food, the room, and having watched her horse watched, she went outside to mount Windbreaker and finish the final stretch to the capital of Skyrim.

The city of Solitude was a day away and she was eager to arrive as soon as possible. There were many influential people in there she could gain as allies that could help her figure out the extent of the Thalmor's assets and on where to strike. After some time on the road and thinking about the Dominion, she realized that she hadn't run into any of their agents or soldiers since leaving the College. Did this mean that their actual influence in the province was weak, their presence overblown? Or did they operate from remote and hidden bases, striking from the shadows instead, as the location of their Embassy and their actions thus far indicated?

As she drew closer to Solitude, things began to get more exciting. Traffic on the road increased with many people and caravans heading to and from the capital. The number of soldiers also increased, many detachments of Legionnaires marching along the road in formation and attentive to anything suspicious. Hours later at the beginning of nightfall, Nadiya arrived at the massive gates that barred the entrance to the city of Solitude.

Nadiya had to wait nearly another hour as the guards processed incoming civilians. Once she got to the gatehouse, she dismounted, submitted to a check, and after answering standard security questions was finally allowed entry into the city. She led Windbreaker through the main gates and walked right into a large crowd watching something off to the side. Curiosity got the better of her, and she decided to see what was going on. After a few moments trying to find a vantage point through the mass of tall Nordic folk, she gave up and got up onto her horse again. Once up, she looked over to see a platform with several people on it. There was a couple of Legionnaires standing guard at the stairway to the stage, a man that was large even for Nordic standards speaking about the crime that Roggvir committed, who was likely the man standing off to the side in tattered clothing, and a massive Redguard holding a very large battleaxe. Besides the people, there was only a table, a chopping block, and a little box in front of the mount. Nadiya realized that this was an execution and continued to watch with interest. Off to the side she saw a man send his daughter away, and inwardly she approved of his decision as such a thing was not something fit for a child's eyes.

As she watched, she learned that Roggvir was responsible for Ulfric's escape and by extension the rebellion. Without Roggvir's efforts, Skyrim might not be facing as divisive a rebellion as it does now. Upon finishing his words, Captain Aldis as Nadiya learned the large Nordic man was called allowed the doomed prisoner to say any final thoughts, and Roggvir took the opportunity to voice his support for an independent Skyrim and for the crowd to regard Ulfric as the true High King. To this much of the crowd booed, and some people in the crowd threw rotten food at Roggvir which splattered across the stage. After this, Captain Aldis nodded to the Redguard, who moved to make the prisoner kneel on the chopping block though Roggvir did so at his own will. On the block, Roggvir proclaimed his intent to see Sovngarde, and then remained silent even as the blade of the Redguard's axe came down.

The head of the prisoner came to rest in the wooden box, purpose-built for such an occasion. A few moments after the deed was done the crowd began to disperse, including the captain and the Redguard executioner. Soon, only a couple of people remained to observe some attendants clean up the mess and carry the remains off to their Hall of the Dead. It was a distraught woman and the man who had sent off his daughter earlier, the man consoling the woman. Nadiya decided to leave them to their grief, unwilling to get involved in any affairs for now, and dismounted her horse to head to the nearest inn for the night. Although she was fond of inns due to the comfort and interesting travelers they attract, she was starting to long for a permanent residence of some sort. Thanks to unfortunate circumstances she couldn't return to the College anytime soon and Morthal simply wasn't a very inviting place, and Dawnstar and Windhelm were out of the question, but perhaps in Solitude she could find some luck if the Thalmor's eyes weren't everywhere. Or maybe in Whiterun, which was her next destination and from the sounds of it was a rustic but homely sort of place. It would be another long journey though, and she wasn't itching to leave Solitude so soon.

Nadiya paid a stable keeper gold to watch her horse and then walked inside a nearby inn called the Winking Skeever. She would find out that the innkeeper alleged that he had a pet skeever that could wink, thus the name of the establishment. She found this to be rather unconvincing, and so did many of the patrons. Eager to wind down after a long trip from the College of Winterhold that involved two major detours and several smaller ones along with much fighting and travels through the rough tundra, Nadiya drank much beer and liquor, and played some games with a few of the other younger patrons; eventually she managed to stumble her way to her room and knock out. Late in the morning she woke up with a very dry mouth and thankfully only a mild headache. Nevertheless, she resolved to not drink so much again for a long time. After getting some hangover food as recommended by the innkeeper and sneaking some blood here and there, she went outside to begin her day, wondering what Solitude had in store for her.

It was a sunny day and there was a notable lack of snow in this city to Nadiya's contentment. The sun was a little strong for her here which was nothing insurmountable, but nonetheless it made her feel more uncomfortable than usual. She had to draw her hood a little more snugly to her head to keep the light at bay more effectively, and then she went about her business. First, she went to visit some shops and merchants for a little over an hour, then she visited the local temple to pay her respects to the Divines and thank them for keeping her safe this long. After entering the temple and walking into the main chamber, she had noticed the glaring lack of a shrine to Talos among all the others. Nadiya wasn't surprised, but seeing a now-empty alcove for a legitimate god made her frustrated. To see the Empire openly renounce Talos at the behest of the Dominion stung her, but she took some small solace in the fact that it would be impossible to completely stamp out worship of the man-turned-god. The Stormcloaks, much as she loathed them, were living proof of that, and she was sure that there were plenty of other secret worshippers out there.

She spent some time sitting on a bench amongst other more faithful worshippers quietly listening to the priests and priestesses give their sermons. Here and there she could see that a scant few worshippers had amulets of Talos on them, well-hidden and generally unnoticeable if one didn't have a keen eye for details. Nadiya smiled slightly at this defiance of the Concordat, and then continued to listen to the curators of the temple for a little longer before getting up and exiting the building.

Unsure of where to head next, Nadiya decided to wander the city to see all that it had to offer and whatever interested her. She started in the direction of the castle, a large complex filled with many Legionnaires and imposing with its stone architecture. She offhandedly thought about seeing Tullius, then realized that this would be a good chance for her to try and meet him. The thought of seeing an old comrade after many years, at least from his perspective, would surely cheer him up. As she approached the gate to the keep, she tried to walk past some guards in charge of manning the front only to be stopped by them. After informing them of her intent to see the general, the head guard shook his head and informed her that he was away on Imperial business, and that even if he was present she would need to have some sort of clearance or appointment to see him. She was tempted to tell the guard of her former Legionnaire status and of her personal acquaintance with the general, but decided against it. No use trying to get in if what she was looking for wasn't here to begin with.

Next, she decided to head to the Blue Palace, famed for being the residence of the High Kings of Skyrim and called as such for its blue roofs and steeples. Nadiya wondered if anyone could wander around the Palace at will, or at least outside it. She was told the sights were extraordinarily beautiful and something that she should try and see when in Solitude, as the innkeeper had told her earlier. The Palace was at the other end of the city, but Nadiya didn't mind having to walk a bit to get there.

She passed by many busy people, most of them either working or heading somewhere to work with a few travelers here and there. Thalmor agents were an uncommon sight, but whenever she spotted them she would avoid them as best she could, which wasn't very difficult since many people kept their distance from them and she could blend along with the people effortlessly. There were quite a few children running around playing games, and Nadiya briefly entertained the thought of joining them. Silly as that would be, she had always longed to live in a world that was simple and carefree. As she got older she realized how boring of an existence that would be, but one can dream.

As Nadiya continued to walk through the streets, she came upon an odd fellow that was haphazardly dressed and saying incoherent statements to himself in an exasperated tone. Great, another crazy beggar, she thought as she tried to walk past him. To her dismay the man turned directly at her as she tried to avoid him and grabbed her arm while beginning to address her in a rather desperate manner. Curiously, the way he spoke made her think that once again not all is as what seems. Offhandedly, Nadiya wondered if this is how Skyrim is, or if she just happens to run into coincidentally crazy situations, or if this was destiny. With how current times are, she wouldn't be surprised if it was some mix of all three possibilities and then some.

"Please, take pity on an old madman! Wait, hear my plea! My master, he is lost between worlds and I cannot bring him back! Without him, we are all lost and grey… please, help us!"

Nadiya gave him a withering glare and firmly removed the beggar's hand from her arm while saying, "Look, I'm not in the business of helping madmen. The last time I did I fell into a ditch filled with slaughterfish and I had to spend days with healers. Leave me alone."

The man slumped his shoulders in failure and hung his head low, muttering, "Why does everyone ignore me? Why do you turn your heads? Why will no one help me?"

"Maybe because you sound insane?"

"Because I am, and so is my master! Please, you'll help me! You help people, right? That's what you do?"

Nadiya raised an eyebrow at his frankness and deciding to humor him for a moment responded, "Maybe… what exactly do you need help with?"

Instantly the beggar's demeanor changed and he literally jumped and shouted with joy, embarrassing the cloaked Breton who became acutely aware of amused passersbys. He continued to celebrate for a moment before settling down and facing Nadiya with a beaming smile.

"It's my master, he has abandoned me! Abandoned his people, and nothing I say can change his mind! Now he refuses to even see me. He says I interrupt his vacation! It's been so many years… won't you help me find him?" he asked with a face that did not match the tone of his voice.

Nadiya stared at the man with a look of bewilderment. This man is a servant or even a slave… and he needs to find his master who's on vacation? Why does this beggar need to find his master so urgently? It had only been a couple of minutes but already Nadiya chalked up this encounter to be one of the strangest things that has happened to her in this province. Wondering why this man would be looking for his master, she asked, "Perhaps. I'm wondering, why don't you just leave him? I mean, you're free to do whatever you want, especially since it sounds like you're a slave."

The man shook his head furiously to the point where Nadiya became worried that he'd suffer from whiplash, and then responded, "Oh no, you just don't understand! Without him, I am not free! Without him, I am doomed! All of his empire shall fall into chaos…"

Nadiya held her hands up and hastily said, "Alright, alright, I get it! Don't hurt yourself there. Oh, watch out. You dropped your… cheese?"

The man giggled at her statement, once again puzzling her with his very random manners and outbursts. "Yes, cheese! My master loves cheese so and never is without it! He always has his people carry a little, just in case. Have some, you might need it!" he exclaimed as he thrust out a slab of cheese into Nadiya's hands. For a moment, she stood staring at the cheese, still very unsure at what was going on and why she was still here listening to the crazy beggar. She shook her head and looked up to address the odd man.

"Oookkaaayyyyy. Look, where can I find him, or at least where do you think he is?" she asked, eager to leave the man as soon as she can. The man scratched his chin and looked up at the sky briefly before responding, "Last I saw him, he was visiting a friend in the Blue Palace. But no one as mundane as the Jarl. No, no… such people are below him. No, he went into the forbidden wing of the palace, to speak with an old friend. Said it had been ages since they last had tea."

Nadiya blinked at this information and then asked with intrigue, "So, who exactly is your master? Is he one of the nobles in the court?"

The man responded, "He is a great man, but one rarely praised! He rules twin empires that span the length and breadth of our minds! All know him, but few can name him!" He then hesitated before continuing, "But… he has forbidden me from saying his name. He says it distracts him, and woe to those who draw his ire. But you will know him when you see him. He's the one who made me like this!" he said as he pointed at his head. She knew that it'd probably be best to just leave this beggar be, but the way he described his master made her hazily recall about someone familiar, from some history book. Who was this master of the beggar? The more she thought about it the more her head started to hurt from trying to understand both the beggar and the identity of his master.

After finding out his name was Dervenin and asking more information about the man's master and why he needed the master so urgently, Nadiya turned to continue heading to the Blue Palace, but not before the man grabbed her arm once more and thrust an odd object into her hand, saying, "Oh, and you'll need the hip bone… it's very important. No entering Pelagius' Wing without that." After the man walked off mumbling more incoherent words to himself and the sky, Nadiya stared at him and then at the bone before resuming her walk. What exactly had she just gotten herself into? Oh well, Dervenin probably was just sprouting nonsense and all she had to do was some mundane task. Hopefully.

Getting into the Blue Palace was easier than she expected. There was a security checkpoint at the main gates and the guards snickered at Nadiya's possession of the bone to her embarrassment, but otherwise she was checked in and ushered inside promptly and professionally without further hassle. After entering the palace, Nadiya marveled at the architecture before looking around to find a servant that could direct her to the Pelagius Wing. She managed to fool one of them into not only telling her where to go but also into giving her the key necessary to access the wing. As she went to the entrance of the wing, she overheard some voices on the next floor up talking about the various troubles in the hold. Nadiya resolved to see the nobles upstairs after she was done with this business of finding the madman's master, assuming this master existed in the first place.

After entering the wing without hassle, she found herself in a dark room with furniture sprawled about and cobwebs everywhere, thankfully with no giant spiders here. She wandered through the musty and ill-kept rooms until she found a staircase that was lit up at the top. After climbing her way up, she found herself facing a corridor illuminated brightly by the windows on the side. Now believing she was sent on a useless quest, Nadiya started to walk forward through the hallway, and then stepped into an entirely different realm.

One moment she was walking through a corridor in a palace on Skyrim, the next moment she was in a densely-fogged area with a few trees scattered about here and there, and a path that was leading… somewhere. Not only that, but she found herself that all her gear was gone and instead she was equipped with some formal apparel, at least what passed for formal in Skyrim. Coming from Cyrodiil, she had grown accustomed to many different definitions such clothing, and Skyrim's examples gives off a rustic vibe. Nadiya looked around to see if there was anything interesting or familiar in sight, and after seeing nothing she decided she had no choice but to go forward. She had to find a way out of this trap, and quickly. She hoped that Dervenin wasn't some mad cultist that sent her as a sacrifice in some dark ritual, although it certainly seemed like it the longer she dwelled on that thought.

After a few steps forward her ears began to make out some sounds, voices. They sounded cordial enough, and Nadiya decided to openly approach the source without sneaking, hoping she wasn't about to encounter some enemies, or even daedra. A short walk later, she turned a corner and came upon quite the sight: two men, one very colorfully dressed to say the least, the other dressed in formal apparel from a bygone age. Both were sitting at a table with various plates, utensils, and food, with a large cheese wheel in the middle. As she continued, she realized that the conversation the two strangers were having was unlike anything she's heard of.

At least they didn't give Nadiya a sense of hostility upon her arrival; on the contrary, they seemed to ignore her. She decided to wait off to the side out of politeness and to hear what they were talking about. As she stood by, she began to realize that these two men didn't seem to be ordinary in the slightest. Not that she shouldn't expect them to be so based on her current location and how she got here, but she wasn't expecting to be witnessing this apparently historical figure talk about his problems to his very eccentric counterpart.

After a few more words to each other they concluded their talk and the more sensibly-dressed man disapparated with a flash of energy. Nadiya was now alone with the colorful one and unsure of what will happen next. A few moments passed with the colorful man not giving any indication that he recognized her presence. With her curiosity getting the better of her, she slowly approached the table and sat down on a chair on the opposite side of the table facing the man, him watching her with silent intrigue and expectant eyes, with that peculiar vibe of madness emanating from them. She looked up to meet his gaze, expecting that he would say something now that they faced each other.

But he said nothing. It seemed that he wanted her to initiate introductions. As seconds went by with awkwardness growing rapidly on Nadiya's part, she decided to start. "Hi?" she ventured cautiously, unsure of will happen next.

"How rude! Can't be bothered to host an old friend for a decade or two!" exclaimed the man in a maniacal voice like that of the beggar from earlier, but somehow more exaggerated almost to a comical extent.

Taken aback, Nadiya composed herself and continued, "Sorry about the interruption. I had to deliver something urgent to you, assuming you're the right person. By the way, who was that you were talking to?"

The man grinned and replied, "Emperor Pelagius III. Now surely even you know about Pelagius' decree? On his deathbed – oh, and this was inspired – he forbade… death! That's right! Death! Outlawed! Crazy, right?!"

Nadiya recalled. She had read in an old book about the madness of Pelagius III, and never gave much thought about that ancient monarch until now, for there was no reason to except for that one midterm that she should have taken seriously. But Pelagius has been long gone for centuries, so why was he here? But more importantly, where is she?

"Huh, weird. By the way, where exactly are we? This doesn't seem like the Blue Palace at all."

"Inside the mind of Pelagius silly. Oh. Is it your… first time?"

"… yes, it is. How are we inside the mind of a man that's been dead for hundreds of years?"

"The mortal doesn't even know how she's here! Marvelous. You know, I find cheese to be the perfect remedy for someone in your socks – oh, you already have some. How delightful!"

Nadiya stared at him for a long moment until she remembered she had to deliver the request to this very, very strange man. "Yeah, delightful. So, about the thing I had to deliver to you – "

"Reeaaaallllyyyy? Ooh, ooh, what kind of thing?! A song? A summons? Wait, I know! A death threat written on the back of an Argonian concubine! Those are my favorites." He paused, raising his eyebrow at Nadiya's gaping mouth. "Don't leave your flaps hanging like that dear, wouldn't want any bugs or dragons to fly in and give you a case of jet addiction. Well? Spit it out mortal. I haven't got an eternity! Actually… I do. Little joke. But seriously, what's the thing? It better not be a request for unlimited power. Last one that got unlimited power turned into the Senate and eventually got thrown down a chasm by his apprentice."

"– it was a message from one of your… servants I'm guessing. He wants you to return from your vacation. Apparently, I'm the one to get you back as per his request."

The man's eyebrows contorted in such a way that Nadiya's suspicions that this "man" was something not at all human or even mortal was confirmed, as if his behavior wasn't enough already. He then started, "Were you now? By whom? Wait, don't tell me! I want to guess! Was it Molag? No, no, you don't fit the type… Little Tim, the toymaker's son? The ghost of King Lysandus? Or was it… Yes! Stanley, that talking grapefruit from Passwall." He paused as Nadiya shook her head no to all his guesses. "Wrong on all accounts, aren't I? Ha! No matter! Honestly, I don't want to know. Why ruin the surprise? But more to the point. Do you – tiny, puny, expendable little mortal – actually think you can convince me to leave? Because that's… crazy. You do realize who you're dealing with here?"

"You know, I think I made a big mistake coming here in the first place."

The man's eyes grew unusually large in alarm and he cried out, "Oh, no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no! No! No mistake at all. What you made was a choice. Granted, not a very wise choice, but these things happen as you well know. Ah, the folly of youth… you know, you remind me of myself at a young age. All I cared about was riding narwhales and sleeping in honeycombs and drinking babies' tears… word of advice if you ride a narwhale. Mind the pointy end." He then laughed very loudly about himself for a time, and then wiped his tears away with a fox before continuing. "Ah, but there I go, waxing poetic about my misspent youth. Now, where were we? Ah yes. You, the mortal messenger. Honestly. Have you any idea who I am?"

"You're very clearly a madman, like your servant."

"Jolly good guess my young padawan! But only half right. I'm a mad god. THE Mad God actually. It's a family title. Gets passed down from me to myself every few thousand years. Now you. You can call me Ann Marie. But only if you're partial to being flayed alive and having an angry immortal skip rope with your entrails. If not… then call me Sheogorath, Daedric Prince of Madness. Charmed."

Nadiya widened her eyes in realization, now dumbly staring at the entity seated in front of her. This was not just a daedra, but one of the reigning Daedric Lords as well. And of all the ones she had to meet, it was the mad one. She supposed things could have turned out to be much worse all things considered, but having to face insanity in any form was not something that she particularly relished. And now she sat facing the patron deity of madness itself. At the very least, and to her relief thus far, Sheogorath didn't attack her. Somehow, she had imagined that the Mad God of all entities would not be rational enough to hold a peaceful conversation. She was relieved to see that this was not the case.

Without much thought Nadiya blurted out, "you're a Daedric Lord." Sheogorath's face turned quizzical at her statement and then howled with laughter. After calming down he responded, "Oh my! You mortals and your lack of intuition! Boggles me with insanity, even more than I already am! Of course, I used to mortal like yourself, but that's beyond the point. What matters is that you need some help, and I know just the perfect remedy to fix you up."

Nadiya threw up her hands reflexively and shouted, "NO! Uh, no please. I like myself the way I am." She had no idea what the Mad God was fully capable of, but she knew better than to allow this entity to mess with her in any way.

Sheogorath responded by slamming his hands on both sides of his head with such swiftness that Nadiya was momentarily taken aback. He pulled his hands downwards, stretching his face along so that he looked like a caricature for sadness, in his own twisted way. He then released his hands, and surprisingly his face remained so until he shook his head furiously and everything snapped back into proper form. He then looked at a persistently disbelieving Nadiya and resumed, "Dearie dear! I'm fond of you and your rambunctious logic, but you REALLY need some work done on your head. Considering you're the Last Dragonborn, I think it be very, VERY important that you get fixed before you go about saving the world and all that hot stuff."

Nadiya perked up at what he had just called her. Dragonborn? He's calling her Dragonborn now? Now that is bogus. Nadiya has heard of that term before. With the body of a mortal and the soul of a dragon, those that were dragonborn could Shout and use their voice to alter reality. People who followed the Way of the Voice were similar, but the differences between them and the dragonborn could fill a book. Historically, the Septim Emperors were all Dragonborn as were many other famous and influential people in Tamriel. She herself might be powerful, but being Dragonborn was just unbelievable. If she were such a person, she would have known a long time ago. Why would Sheogorath call her that? And saving the world too? Nadiya imagined that she would play some role in fighting the Thalmor, but she had a feeling that wasn't all Sheogorath was alluding to. She knew better than to take the words of the Mad God at face, but insanity does have its truths. And besides, Vaermina did refer to her as Dovahkiin. Did that and Dragonborn mean the same thing? Linguistically both words sounded quite similar to one another, although she could be mistaken.

"Wait, did you just call me Dragonborn? And saving the world? What makes you say that?" she asked, leaning forward with intrigue. Sheogorath sighed and shaking his head said, "Ugh, first an Emperor that needs fixing and now another chosen one that doesn't know their own destiny? I knew I shouldn't have bet against M'aiq on that last challenge. Another word of advice dearie, don't ever bring pumpernickel to life and expect them to obey your command, they just run off and try to paint the future. News flash, you can't do that. I tried to do the same thing, and it turns out the future will give you the stink-eye."

"Alright, ignore my last question. Back to what you said earlier, does this mean you're going to leave?"

"Now that's the real question, isn't it? Because honestly, how much time off could a demented Daedra really need? So, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to leave. That's right. I'm done. Holiday… complete. Time to return to the hum drum day-to-day. On one condition. You have to find the way out first. Good luck with that."

"Okay, what's the catch?"

"Ha! I do love it when the mortals know they're being manipulated. Makes things infinitely more interesting." Sheogorath then waved his hand outwards in a random direction and said, "Care to take a look around? This is not, I dare say, the Solitude botanical gardens. Have you any idea where you are? Where you truly are? Welcome to the deceptively verdant mind of the Emperor Pelagius III. That's right! You're in the head of a dead, homicidally insane monarch."

Nadiya looked towards the direction that the Mad God was pointing towards to see a path go off into the forest, the fog still obscuring further vision. She returned her gaze to Sheogorath to ask him for some help, but she was interrupted by him, saying, "Now, I know what you're thinking. Can I still rely on my swords and spells and sneaking and all that nonsense? Sure, sure. Or... you could use... the Wabbajack! Huh? Huh? Didn't see that coming, did you?" Right as the last word left his lips, a most peculiar staff flashed into existence right in front of Nadiya, and she grabbed it before it could fall. She beheld it for a moment, analyzing the unique detail of the staff, particularly the three faces which were shaped with varying expressions. One appeared to be laughing, another sad, and the third angry. After inspecting it, Nadiya turned to Sheogorath and said, "Thanks. So where do I head to first?"

After conferring with the Mad God for a little while longer, Nadiya set out to purge the nightmares plaguing a dead emperor, consisting of paranoia, confidence, and night terrors. She couldn't begin to comprehend the insanity of it all, but she knew better than to try and understand, unless she would like to risk going mad herself. That would not be good at all for her, although Sheogorath might find it jolly good fun.

Though the nightmares she was tasked to fix weren't difficult, it took quite a bit of time to resolve them as usage of the Wabbajack resulted in a lot of random results, ranging from amusing to frightening. Nadiya didn't have her weapons, so she had to solely rely on the Wabbajack, sometimes using it repeatedly in order to achieve the desired outcome. Here and there she punched and threw lightning bolts, and suffered a couple of nips and bruises, but for the most part she emerged from each scenario relatively unscathed, with the Mad God's voice commenting on her actions with zest. After accomplishing all the tasks that Sheogorath had deemed necessary, she returned to him and triumphantly announced that the mind of Pelagius was now fixed. "Ta-da! Fixed and ready to go! Probably something you would say," she remarked.

After saying this, the Mad God regarded her for a moment and then started, "Hmmmm... 'fixed' is such a subjective term. I think 'treated' is far more appropriate, don't you? Like one does to a rash, or an arrow in the face." He then waved his hand and continued, "Ah, but no matter. Heartless mortal that you are, you've actually succeeded and survived. I am forced to honor my end of the bargain. So, congratulations! You're free to go!" He then hesitated and concluded, "I… have been known to change my mind. So… go. Really."

Seeing that this might be her only chance to question the Daedric Lord about the title he referred to her as, Nadiya stepped forward and spoke very directly to him. "Hold on. You called me the Last Dragonborn earlier. I want an explanation for that, and since I helped you out I at least deserve to know why."

Sheogorath gave her a look of annoyance, rubbed his eyes in exasperation and said, "Dearie, there are a lot of things that are bound to happen in the next few years, and you are just fated to be at the heart of it all. Some of my, 'colleagues,' have decided that since you'll be bouncing around a lot more and a lot higher than all of the other mortals, you would do well as their champion. Me, I think it's nice to have someone spread some joy and madness around. As for your title, I'm sure your little mind can figure it out. You're bound to save the world, just like I did a little bit ago."

Nadiya raised an eyebrow and said, "You saved the world?" She then stopped a moment, looking very intently at the Mad God. A Fox, referencing the Oblivion Crisis as if he was there, the Hero of Kvatch allegedly vanishing, leaving only cheese in his trail…

"Wait. Are you…"

"Yes?"

"… the Champion of Cyrodiil?"

"Am I?"

"I'm asking you."

"I'm asking you too. I don't rightly remember what everyone thought of me after I put on the mask."

"So you are him!"

"NOT SO LOUD! Don't want to have any buzzy bees or unsavory mortal minions getting word out! By the way, you keep me a secret; otherwise you'll wake up one morning with more than just dragons to worry about."

"Incredible! I never imagined I would meet one of the Heroes of Tamriel. How did you turn into, this? The Mad God? I mean, you used to be mortal once."

"Like I said earlier pesky mortal, the family title gets passed down from me to myself every few thousand years. But methinks you're getting at something else. Let's just say that butterflies don't start out as butterflies. Shocking, I know! But it's the truth."

"Huh. Okay then. Ever met the Nerevarine?"

"What? Preposterous! He wandered off to Akavir by the time I came around to do business. Not sure what's he's up to nowadays, though last I knew he was riding snakes, killing snow demons, taking painting lessons from tigers, and going on adventures with the monkey king. You know, what adventurers always do, finding new people to rustle their jimmies. Like the Chosen One from that ruined world. Now THAT is someone who knew how to get into trouble." Sheogorath then laughed quite obnoxiously and continued, "Look Dragonborn, you really should get going. I have to use the bathroom, and you mouthing about hero worship isn't helping."

"Wait! Can you tell me my destiny? Vaermina mentioned that I might play a part in destroying the Thalmor."

"Ugh. Teaching her the importance of madness wasn't the best idea. Then again, I am mad, so who's to say that what I did was wrong? Dearie, you'll be saving the world more than once, that's all I know and am willing to say. As to how you will, it'll all get revealed to you, like pudding to bards. Delicious, decadent, caramel pudding. Oh my, there's some right now!"

"Alrighty then. So what now?"

"Now we get back to the script! I'll send you back in a moment. We will meet again, but if for some crazy, absolutely lunatic reason we don't, just remember that once you Mantle and attain the power to reshape Aurbis, don't wake the Godhead. At least not until we're all ready. If you do it too early, poof we go," adding air quotes around the word 'poof' as he spoke.

"Um, okay."

"Don't worry too much dearie, I believe in you," he concluded quite sanely as he stood up and started stuffing the contents of the table into a bag he pulled seemingly out of nowhere. "I mean, just look at me and how I turned out! Okay maybe not the best example. Probably Talos or the Tribunal would be easier for you to understand and take after."

"Now, where was I? Oh right! Pelagius Septim the Third, once the Mad Emperor of Tamriel, now so boringly sane. I always knew he had it in him!" After clearing the table of everything he then pulled out another bag and started to put first the chairs and then the table inside.

"Did you need help?"

"Nope! Got it all figured out. Perk of losing your mind, you don't have to obey the laws of physics! Probably because my other half is running about doing Oblivion-knows-what, but I digress."

After he finished putting everything away into his bags and placed them inside his coat, he stood triumphantly and said, "Well, I suppose it's back to the Shivering Isles. The trouble Haskill can get into while I'm gone simply boggles the mind... Let's make sure I'm not forgetting anything. Clothes? Check. Beard? Check! Luggage? Luggage! Now where did I leave my luggage?"

"Is it not in your coat?" asked Nadiya incredulously. Before the Mad God could respond, Dervenin suddenly apparated into existence in front of them. The beggar briefly exclaimed with joy before Sheogorath waved his hand and sent him away to the Shivering Isles with some choice words. The Daedric Lord then turned to Nadiya and said with pomp, "And as for you, my little mortal minion... Feel free to keep the Wabbajack. As a symbol of my... Oh, just take the damn thing." And then, with a wave and a wink he added, "You take care of yourself, now. And if you ever find yourself up in New Sheoth, do look me up. We can share a strawberry torte. Ta ta!" As the final word left his lips, Nadiya found her vision fading, and an instant later she reappeared in the corridor, equipment in a sack at her feet and still wearing the formal apparel from Pelagius' mind, Wabbajack in her left hand.

The presence of the Wabbajack was just about the only thing that did away with her initial thoughts that everything that had just happened was imaginary. That and her new clothes.

She stood dumbly for a moment, and then shook her head in amazement at what just transpired. After changing back into her coven apparel and equipping everything as she had before, she then turned around and went to go get lunch, eager to eat and drink after spending much time fixing an emperor and getting revelations. As she exited the Palace, Nadiya wondered how she would be meeting the Mad God once again. Though she had no idea what to expect, she imagined that it would be in the most interesting of circumstances.


End file.
